Crowned with Lilies and with Laurel

SOLD

24” x 18”

Watercolor, acrylic, and gouache on panel

This piece depicts a darkened greenhouse, lush with plants. The title is from an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem about death, one of my favorites. I painted this just after my beloved canine companion passed away and I was looking for the beauty that can be found in darkness. It is not meant to be too morose, I was just meditating on these plants growing vibrantly in the quiet dark, drawing on the nourishment provided by the life that came before it.

An excerpt from St. Vincent Millay’s poem:

“I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.

So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:

Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned with lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.”