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Out of Darkness · 2024
Flower Vase
Available · in the studio, Phoenix
The domestic object made profound by darkness — the vase as the Out of Darkness subject, the familiar held in unfamiliar ground.
“With 'Flower Vase', stillness becomes vivid—each hue a quiet thunder, each line a lingering breath.”
Flower Vase (2024) is a portrait of containment — of beauty held, of energy paused. This 72 x 48 inch oil painting from the Out of Darkness collection uses floral form as a departure point, not a destination. It is not a still life. It is a meditation on what stillness can carry.
The composition centers on an abstracted vessel rendered in heavy oil impasto, surrounded by bursts of color that resemble petals, flames, or signals. Coral, pale lavender, gold, and rust red blend and bleed into one another, marked by thick vertical smears and controlled drips. The vase is only implied, but its presence anchors the chaos — a structure in bloom.
I painted Flower Vase during a period of quiet retreat, when expression needed form but not narrative. The idea of a vase — a space that holds but does not speak — became a powerful metaphor for interior life.
The work recalls Philip Guston’s late abstractions and Lee Krasner’s floral explosions — not in style, but in spirit. It is an offering and a question: What do we hold inside? And what overflows?
Flower Vase doesn't try to impress. It invites you to look softly. To feel.
Where to see it. In person at RituStudio, Phoenix, by appointment. Represented by Jarrow & Goodman, Los Angeles.
The space it needs
- Wall
- At least 8 ft wide
- Ceiling
- 9 ft or more
- Light
- Low ambient light amplifies luminous passages — dark-wall installation ideal
- Daylight
- A dark painting that glows from within; direct sun flattens the near-black ground and dims the coral and gold. Indirect daylight from a north window lets the luminous passages carry.
Lives best in
Hotel lobby 5/5
At six by four feet, this midnight-blue and viridian canvas commands a lobby wall with exactly the gravity a public threshold needs, arresting transit without aggression.
Living room 4/5
Flower Vase earns its place in a living room because its near-black ground and bone-white passages reward the slow, repeated looking that domestic life allows.
Details
- Size
- 6 × 4 ft (W × H)
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Year
- 2024
- Collection
- Out of Darkness
- Palette
- Midnight Blue · Cobalt · Near Black · Faded Ink · Burnt Umber · Bone White · Jade Green · Viridian
- Weight
- About 45 lb
- Ready
- In the studio; delivery 8–12 weeks
Its ArtGram
ArtGram.Frond
- Texture4
- Form3
- Colour range3
- Palette3.1
- Contrast4.5
- Abstraction Quotient2
