Description
Come In From The Cold is a 36 x 36 x 1.5 inch contemporary mixed media floral painting on gallery wrapped canvas. I painted it from imagination, letting gentle color, rounded forms, playful marks, and preserved language gather naturally.
The colors and shapes are gentle and warm, and the sentiments are timeless. Soft color washes across loose, expressive flowers that lean, overlap, and reach beyond one another. Although you recognize a bouquet, I am not interested in botanical precision; rather, I use floral language of line, shape, rhythm, mass, and sentiment as a vehicle for abstraction.
Intentional Points of Discovery within the Contemporary Mixed Media Floral Painting
I preserved passages from the 1875 poem The Bath of the Golden Robin and the story Are You My Wife? within the element of collage. These fragments are intentional points of discovery, inviting the viewer to read, notice, and wonder over them.
Words such as sunshine, mossy bank, pebbles, and river appear within the floral field. Elsewhere, the question Are You My Wife? remains clearly visible. I chose these fragments because their meaning matters to me. They carry nature, delight, tenderness, relationship, and love into the painting rather than simply adding the appearance of aged paper.
As a result, the language becomes part of the emotional life of the work. Nearly 150 years have passed since those words were first published, yet they can still stir recognition today. That realization makes the present feel more precious to me and reminds me to value the expressions of love we create within our own lives.
The Title of this Contemporary Mixed Media Floral Painting Adds Another Layer
The title adds another layer of curiosity.
I like that the painting never answers questions completely. Instead, the generous bouquet, soft forms, and playful visual language suggest welcome, shelter, affection, and possibility. From across a room, the flowers lead. Then, as the viewer comes closer, marks, collage, titles, and individual words begin to appear.
For me, Come In From The Cold connects me with love. When I see words of nature and love stories written generations ago, I am grateful. I am grateful to express love in the present. I am grateful for the possibility that traces of my expressions of love may endure.
Painted Intuitively from Imagination
I painted Come In From The Cold intuitively from imagination, responding to emerging relationships rather than following a fixed drawing or reference image. Working in this way, I develop attention and response, with each decision influencing what comes next.
I painted it flat on the wall and later had it professionally stretched on a custom stretcher frame for exceptional stability and crisp gallery-wrapped infinity view sides.
Because I worked on the canvas before stretching, the painted surface carries naturally around the edges rather than ending at a conventional border. As a result, the painting gains a clear object presence and can be displayed without a frame.
A Contemporary Large Scale Square
At 36 inches square, Come In From The Cold has a large scale that can hold a room, while remaining intimate enough for close viewing. The gentle palette brings color without harshness, while the layered surface continues to reveal marks, paper, language, and small visual surprises over time.
I think of this painting as both a welcome and a reminder. It offers abundance, warmth, curiosity, and affection while asking us to notice the life already in front of us.
Short Story: Are You My Wife
Poem: The Bath Of The Golden Robin
View my response to this painting, as it hangs: Here On YouTube
Exhibited:
Kittery Art Association, Kittery Maine, More Than Words, a members’ exhibition, Oct 23 – Nov 16, 2025.
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Short Story: Are You My Wife
Poem: The Bath Of The Golden Robin
Exhibited:
Kittery Art Association, Kittery Maine, More Than Words, a members’ exhibition, Oct 23 – Nov 16, 2025.
