Muscadine

Muscadine began not with a brush, but with flowers. The arrangement at the center of this work was conceived and composed by floral designer Maribel Ramírez — a study in abundance, contrast, and the quiet drama of bloom against bloom. What drew me to her work was the same quality I seek in painting: the sense that beauty is always in conversation with transience. I took her arrangement as my subject and translated it into paint — the deep muscadine grapes anchoring the composition in darkness and weight, the ranunculus and peonies rising in warmth and softness, the teal drapery holding everything together with quiet elegance. The painting became a dialogue between two artistic visions, two sets of hands, one image.