A still life that keeps one foot outdoors.
Bouquet for Claude is an oil pastel still life on black paper, staged against a landscape that opens behind it. A full bouquet bursts from a clear glass vase set on a tabletop. The flowers crowd outward in reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, and whites, with green stems and leaves stitched between them. The surface is worked in short, layered marks, so petals read as frayed color and light rather than clean outlines.
The setting splits the image into two worlds. In front: the table, the vase, and the dense bouquet. Behind: a hillside and a dark cluster of trees, with a band of pale sky and distant light. That backdrop tilts the still life toward a classical pastoral mood without turning it into a scene. The bouquet remains the center of gravity.
What makes the piece unusual is its backdrop: a hillside and a dark stand of trees under a luminous sky. The distant light reads as evening or early morning, giving the still life a pastoral depth rather than a studio wall. The oil pastel surface stays tactile throughout—layered strokes for petals, rubbed transitions for shadow, and crisp highlights where glass catches light.
Small details keep the staging human. A tiny bottle with a single yellow bloom sits to the right, catching a cold gleam. A round fallen flower head rests near the bouquet. And beside the vase, a frog lies on the tabletop—an intimate, almost private detail that shifts the work from “pretty arrangement” to lived moment.
Inspired by Claude Lorrain, the work borrows his horizon light while keeping its subject close and tangible.
