Description
“Desert Globe Mallow” | An amazing orange flower painting
- 14x11in.
- Oil on Canvas, 2019
- Unframed
This orange flower painting depiction of the commonly known Desert Globe Mallow or Apricot Mallow, is a member of the genus Sphaeralcea Ambigua in the Mallow family Malvaceae. It is a perennial shrub native to the South West found in the Mojave Desert, Great Basin deserts, and Sonoran desert co-regions.
The leaves are fuzzy with white hairs on both sides, bowed, palmately veined, and on long stems, the number of which increase with age. The fruit is a brown capsule containing numerous seeds, first quite spherical as implied by the genus name, later flattening to a disk the flowers are bowl-shaped, 5-petaled, apricot to orange in color, and bloom in the spring. The focus is on the flower more than the foliage and/or plant.
About the Artist:
As a young man I was always outside observing my surroundings. I graduated from Elsenburg College Stellenbosch in South Africa with degrees in Agriculture, Horticulture, and Oenology. I first specialized in growing roses and fruit trees in the Eastern Cape region where I taught local farm workers to play rugby and established a rugby league while they taught me how to speak their native tongue, Xhosa.
I traveled the world extensively and then settled in Tucson, Arizona where I live with my wife Sarah and two sons James and Gordon. Sarah, Yale educated in art history, finally put the palette knife in my hand. I am self-taught and express what comes naturally to me. My paintings are full of movement, deep and rich. I let the moment, mood, and my education of the subject, inspire my art.
