White Inspiration #1

These are the white azaleas from my neighbor’s yard, so pale and finely drawn that they asked to be painted large enough for every stamen and soft fold to matter. In this first study the blooms crowd close, their white petals shaded with cool grays and faint yellow throats, the red-tipped filaments catching light against the darker leaves. I enlarged them because their delicacy felt almost too quiet at ordinary scale; only by filling the paper could the purity of each edge and the slight translucence of the petals stay visible. The result is a slow look at something that might otherwise be passed by.