Audubon Philodendrons is just that, capturing a collection of elephant ears along the edge of the pond at Audubon Park in New Orleans. I think of this painting as perhaps my best example of a “portrait” of a thing rather than a person — which is how I think of most of my work.

I created this following a similar piece, Kim with Philodendrons, and took the opportunity to improve the colors of the leaves with greens that I find more calming and peaceful. I continued the motif of the golden-brown sky, though, which I feel abstracts the piece away from a literal horizon or blue sky into something more regal and distinct.

The most prominent aspect of this piece is the flow of the lines of the leaves. There are no sharp edges; every curve is fluid and moves smoothly, almost logically, into its next turn. I especially love the bottom tip of the main leaf, as it curves down and right back up, with never a point being reached. This, I think, is the benefit of a mixed digital and manual process, where Adobe Illustrator is purpose-built to tweak and adjust lines into their perfect forms, and my hand is just steady enough to recreate them on canvas.