Trumpeting Spring from a Vase

These are the inexpensive Trader Joe’s daffodils that, for me, always announce the first real week of spring—bright yellow trumpets rising from a clear German crystal vase that came home as a travel gift from family. The dark background lets the pale petals and the cut glass do the work, the stems refracting through the water while the flowers lean outward as if they have something to say. I painted them because that particular combination feels like a small ritual: ordinary grocery-store blooms given a moment of ceremony in a piece of glass that has already traveled. The result is less a formal still life than a yearly reminder that spring can arrive in a paper sleeve and still look triumphant.