The succulent paintings were born out of my daily walks with our French bulldog. In the depths of the drought when most of the landscape was a desolate brown color, I discovered the natural beauty and extensive variety of a plant that seemed to flourish. I became obsessed with photographing the succulents and capturing their immense detail. They appear to explode with the most exquisite, sophisticated colors. The nopale plant is of special interest to me as I observed its changes throughout the year.

Succulents have become the ideal subject matter for me to work with in the compositions of my paintings. With the closeups of the echeveria, I can create a mandala-like framework. I’m constantly getting lost in the process of rendering the circular form. The edges of these plants often have delicate lines of a different color which really contribute to the movement of the composition. With the figurative structures of the nopales, I am able to work with the positive and negative space to create a dynamic “landscape”. The intent of my work is to draw the viewer in to the subtle beauties of the natural object. I am constantly magnifying my subject matter so that most of its inner beauty is reflected.