The Lady of the Flowers

This painting is in the Gallery at Marina Square as part of my ongoing exhibit.  Tomorrow I will be taking down my show.  It was really an interesting experience having this show.  I am very grateful to everyone that came to see my work. 

The Lady of the Flowers started with a different story.  But one day while working in the Gallery, a man was looking at the work and I struck up a conversation with him explaining the stories of some of the paintings.  I told him my story of this lady.  He told me his which is the one I now will relate to you as it is much better than mine.

Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States,United Kingdon, Canada and Germany during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. This made victory gardens become a part of daily life on the home front. 

This lady planted the veggie, fruit and herbs as people did during the war.  Her garden was wonderful and she worked in the garden every day she could.  Her garden was so sucessful that she was able to share her food with others that herself.  She considered herself lucky to have land to plant a garden.  She even planted her front yard rather than grow grass. 

After the war, she planted flowers and when they bloomed, she celebrated her own victory.

This painting was a vision of a woman that I wanted to show in her garden with her dress blossoming into flowers.  She is one of the models from my life drawing sessions.  I love her happy expression and this painting was done in a couple of days, the weather was sunny and nice when I painted it.  It is an 12x9" painting.