Rose in Repose

 
Rose in Repose, shown in progress.
Watercolor on 100% cotton rag, 140 Lb, cold press paper 
Image size 18 x 17 Inches, Paper size: 22 x 30

Does a rose rush and struggle to unfurl its petals? Does its scent need pushing and coaxing to emerge? As delicate and potentially vulnerable as they are, their timing is their own. They cannot be forced. Their environment and inner clockwork produce blooms of exquisite beauty, the embodiment of natural power in physical form.

In being, roses sing. And if you stop to listen, smell the roses, and imbibe them, they lead straight into the ultra-alive stillness. If we're willing, we let go of what we think and allow nature's intelligence to re-pattern us. That's what happens to me when I paint them. I become one with them for a while, and then the energy of that rose is in me and the painting. Each one has a message, and I am an ambassador between worlds that are really one.

Roses grow and thrive when they are rooted in the earth. It's the same for us. That's how they ground their ineffable energies. It's estimated that roses have inhabited this planet since the Pleostine Age, which began approximately 250 million years ago. Their scent would have been stronger then, and their form slightly different, five-petaled as fossils tell us. But either way, a rose is still a rose. You'll always recognize a rose.

Leslie Montana

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Exquisite Paintings on the Nature of Flowers is a body of work based on a sophisticated visual analysis of nature's frequencies = LOVE. Ongoing, and now in phase two.