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About a week or so before Christmas my parents stopped by unannounced, which is a big deal since they never do this. I had been at their house previously and said I loved their Christmas cactus, so my Dad told my Mom they needed to go buy one for me and drop it off. It is such a beautiful plant, and when they brought it there were so many blooms, nearly 2 on every little point!

I quickly took many photos from different angles, and with varying light. Later I spent time examing them all and cropping until I decided on this composition. Next I put the photo in Adobe Photoshop and experimented with some different filters. I wanted to create a slight abstraction of the image.

This filtered photo became a great reference from which to paint the different shapes and values, allowing me to capture the essence of the flower and blooms. For the green leaves I used a palette knife so that I could show the texture and color striations in them. I used thinned paint for the top layers...

I rediscovered my love for art and found my passion for oil painting after being diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Fibromyalgia in 2005. Having previously worked as an audiologist and later in pharmaceuticals, chronic disease forced me to abandon my career to stay home and rest. What I didn't know was that a new opportunity was blooming. During this challenging period of change I was encouraged by my son-in-law, a very talented artist, to "just paint", but shortly thereafter we lost him to suicide. Having inherited the contents of his studio, his influence is present in my work. In the early years of learning to cope with all the loss and limitations that came with this chronic disease I felt...