When I was a teenager I had started airbrushing and taking a serious interest in photography at around the same time. The 2 were closely linked to each other. Photography became a good way for me to shoot my own reference for my paintings and both forms of creative expression have taken a winding path that has converged and diverged across the years. This piece was a converging of both art forms and is one of my most recent digital paintings based off of a macro shot I had done in 2006. I had began a series of digital flower paintings in mid 2013 that had a very loose and painterly style to them. I wanted the images to be bright and colourful and fun and I had picked through my many flower shots looking for reference for each piece. I am trying to force myself to be not as focused on photo realism so much and have fun with my artwork. So far I have about 6-7 floral pieces in various stages of completion with this one being at a point that I can be happy to call finished for now. The other pieces all follow along the same style and are part of a series I am excited to finish when time affords.