Solari 5, 20" x 16"

"The word Solari in Latin, meaning to give comfort and console fits this series perfectly. My intention when I paint is to bring grace and beauty onto the canvas. I can’t help but paint flowers, especially tulips. Flowers bring joy and feed our souls into our everyday lives, but always temporary in nature. We can almost miss that beauty if we forget to look. So by painting them, I hope to capture this fleeting grace and bring this joy and beauty permanently onto the canvas.

During painting this series I also lost a loved one and felt lots of grief. It was hard to be motivated to paint again. I reluctantly picked up the brush and started painting and as the paintings evolved they brought me comfort and healing. The Solari series is about the hard things we will experience throughout our lives… in the paintings you will notice the contrast of dark/light and the sad drooping heads, weeping. In another painting, you’ll see the drooping heads lifting and dancing, finding nourishment in the vase with water they are recharged and free. I really enjoy painting the same idea in different compositions and seeing how they evolve. The contrast between the dark and light background is very powerful yet, softened with the dancing petals. The canvases with the light backgrounds are more about letting go of sorrow and having this promise of new beginnings. So a much lighter feel to those pieces. I find working with the light and dark fluid paints brings a balanced energy between the two through the series and as a whole, they tell a story."

Canadian artist Bibiana has been refining her skills in abstract florals and landscape paintings for the past several years. She started off as a realistic painter, but that didn’t excite her. She wanted to tap into a more intuitive way of painting. She likes working with acrylics, fluid acrylics and inks… exploring how these mediums work together in layers on a canvas and water-colour paper.