Coronal Bloom 2021

Lanise Howard made this dreamlike painting called Coronal Bloom using what looks like acrylic on canvas. There’s something so tender about how the details are rendered, a kind of loving attention to the natural world. The paint handling is lovely: thin washes create a luminous background, and then these bolder, darker greens are used to define the forms of the leaves. Howard’s made all these luscious botanical shapes that feel both super real and totally invented. Look at the veining in that big leaf, for example – how each vein has been carefully picked out in a darker green. It's almost like the artist is using line to construct and contain the color. This feels like a very personal vision, a really lovely piece and it reminds me a little of some of the botanical paintings of Ernst Haeckel, or maybe even Hilma af Klint. Art is an ongoing conversation, and it’s paintings like this that keep it moving!