"Flora" Giclée Print

Flora pertains to the naturally occurring native plants in an area and that is certainly this painting.

I took this reference photo while biking through Topsail State Park. It’s looking west through the natural flora – saw palmettos on the bottom, scrubby trees in the middle and slash pines scattered about. You can hardly see the sky but it is there peeking through the trees in places.

I KNEW I would paint this scene but didn’t know how at the time. I didn’t want it to feel like just a bunch of pine trunks in a row. When I started thinking more about the atmosphere of the area, I thought of a new way to paint this old favorite.

I lessened the contrast of the trunks to make them softer and pulled back the values to a higher key in general. This allowed the hazy colors to melt together in a softer way.

This print is by Kathleen Broaderick and is a part of “The Coastal Dune Lakes” Collection.