Forgotten Flowers
“My Grail”, Watercolour on paper, 9 x 6 3/4 inches”, 2026
Every now and then during my wanderings in the forests of Temiskaming I find flowers that interrupt the drab colours of an overcast day. This is Fireweed, so named because it supposedly grows after a fire. Many of the flowers I see are far from people and they have made me ponder the fact that I may be the only person who sees a particular flower. Nature offers beauty without expectation of results.
This painting is for every forgotten flower. For every kid who realized that the promise of inclusion somehow didn’t include them. For the retiree that arrives at the terminus of working life and sadly concludes that the opportunity for contributing has been wrenched from their grasp by a rapacious force that only wants more and more money.
Most flowers are rejected by us in that we do not arise and go forth to see them. And yet the flower remains undisturbed. The absurdity of nature (referenced perhaps by comparison with the grail) doesn’t really matter in the end. It works. We can learn from this.
