“Beauty is fading, nor is fortune stable; sooner or later death comes to all.” -Propertius
I started working on another illustration with movement, but I’ll need to go back to it. I lost patience.
I was thinking about what to do next, and I was thinking about the word fleeting, so I decided I’d rummage through my old photos to see if I could alter something and make it work.
Several years ago I took phone pics of some peonies we had in the house, and I came upon them and thought… Oh goodie… more pink flowers. Not!
But I did think: I’d like to make something beautiful with these flowers, something that captures the word fleeting, and makes the original image unrecognizable.
Basically, I did some masking, duplicating, twirling, oil paint effects, and some blur – and I changed the hue to make it delicate instead of radical pink.
Originally it was in a landscape format, but I thought it would be cooler in portrait style so the details would zoom in a little. Honestly, I like it. I’d love to get in there and lay down – it looks so soft! I think it depicts movement, but tranquility too.
Anyway, I was going to finish my thoughts on ‘fleeting,’ but I can’t seem to get the words out. I have ideas all day long, and I think… I need to write that down, but then I don’t, and then my thought vanishes – never to return.
I decided that I’d just let the image do the talking. In fact, that sounds like another fun project, so we’ll see!
In the meantime, I think that the peonies, even in their altered state, are a pretty good representation of things that pass swiftly… life, beauty, flowers, thoughts, difficulties… it all just comes and goes.
I guess that’s all for now! Thanks for looking/reading, I hope you enjoyed something here!
“Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero (Pluck the day, put very little trust in tomorrow).” -Horace
a sprinkle of faith 
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