Blue Lily, a blue abstract acrylic painting by Ritu Raj (acrylic on woodcut, 4 × 4 ft)

Something happened when you saw this. What was it?

Abstract Inquiry · 2025

Blue Lily

Pop Elegance with a Subversive Twist

4 × 4 ft · Acrylic on woodcut · 2025

Available · in the studio, Phoenix

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The lily that chose blue — pop elegance with the subversive twist of a color that doesn't belong to it.

Blue Lily (2025) is part of my Pop Art Collection, where I explore the tension between seductive surface and layered commentary. This 48 x 48 inch acrylic on canvas presents the lily — a symbol often associated with purity and delicacy — through the bold, flattened lens of pop aesthetics.

Rendered in vivid, almost synthetic blues against a vibrant, contrasting background, the lily in this work becomes both icon and critique. The flower’s delicate edges are exaggerated into sharp, graphic outlines, its elegance veiled beneath a playful, commercial sheen.

In spirit, Blue Lily echoes the works of Roy Lichtenstein, whose comic-inspired florals and portraits straddle the line between celebration and satire. Like Lichtenstein, I appropriate the visual language of advertising and mass media, but beneath the vibrant polish, Blue Lily offers a subtle interrogation of beauty as commodity.

This is not a lily found in nature; it is a lily refracted through screens, packaging, and the hyper-color saturation of the digital age. It seduces the eye while teasing the viewer to look beneath the surface — to question what happens when delicate forms are turned into decorative symbols.

As part of my Pop Art Collection, Blue Lily celebrates the allure of surface while disrupting it — offering a nod to Pop’s playfulness, with a subversive undertone of critique.

Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.

The space it needs

Wall
At least 5 ft wide
Ceiling
8 ft or more
Light
Natural light preferred — the resin catches it and the color shifts through the day
Daylight
Unbothered by Arizona sun, the cobalt and cerulean keep the lily's color steady beside glass. Raking light across the woodcut surface sharpens the petals; flat noon glare softens them.

Lives best in

Living room 5/5

Blue Lily rewards the room where people slow down. It changes on the second and

Bedroom 5/5

Blue Lily asks nothing of the room it enters — it simply holds its ground and wa

Details

Size
4 × 4 ft (W × H)
Medium
Acrylic on woodcut
Finish
Epoxy over acrylic. The resin lifts the color off the canvas and holds it forward, so the surface deepens as the light moves across the room.
Year
2025
Collection
Abstract Inquiry
Palette
Graphite Black · Cobalt · Spectral Gray · Cerulean · Deep Purple
Weight
About 22 lb
Ready
In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks

Its reading

Read on the six dimensions of ArtGraph.

  • Texture4
  • Form4
  • Colour range2
  • Palette4.1
  • Contrast3.4
  • Abstraction Quotient-1.5
Read the full reading on ArtGraph →

Keywords

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