”Blue Morning Glories”

Georgia O’Keeffe, 1935, American Abstract

“Nobody sees a flower, really–it is so small–we haven’t time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Georgia O’Keeffe

One of O’Keeffe’s trademark subjects is flowers—large flowers that give the viewer what I like to call a “bee’s eye view” of the subject!

I first wrote this last year marking Twenty-two weeks into the 2020 COVID pandemic. I looked for things that give me joy! Flowers give me joy! My summer flower garden is lush and colorful again this year, as it was in 2020 –and full of opportunity to give me much joy!

O’Keeffe loves color, and the combination of the brilliance and sheer size of her work make it jump off of the wall of any museum—and easily identifiable as hers. I love looking at her paintings of flowers because I also love color–and flowers–and they give me joy!

In this oil painting, her morning glory is enlarged to about 3 feet in diameter! (30″ x 40″, Smithsonian American Art Museum)

The flowers in my photos from my garden are barely 3 inches in diameter! I love O’Keeffe’s way of blowing up even the tiniest flowers to force us to LOOK – really, really look – at them!

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