"Now Showing" at Hope Street Studios

Vanitas

oil on wrap-around canvas
The Daily Paintworks

24" x 24"

$600.

A few of my pictures are hanging at Hope Street Music Studios in Mountain View, through July.  Among them are some landscapes, garden paintings and this piece, called "Vanitas."  Traditionally, vanitas is a type of painting style with a "message" that expresses the transient nature of life, a way to remind us that our time here is short.  Usually they are still lifes, and often depict skulls, candles burning low, and things like that. 

And that's what this still life is - a reminder that life is transitory in nature, and to appreciate the here and now. This painting suggests that flowers, fruit, or the beauty of a summer's day won't last long, and like all of us, must be valued. It also has bigger suggestions in mind - that what's inside the frame may not be the best of what you see, that some of the most beautiful things (like those flowers) happen outside the frame (read: box). The frame itself, painted on in the trompe l'oeil manner - literally meaning to trick the eye - is a reminder that things are not always what they seem. The painting itself is an invitation to look below the surface and see the deeper meaning of things.

To purchase this painting please click on the Paypal link on your left, or contact me at my email address above. Thank you.