"Frontline Flower" is painted on cotton watercolor paper with acrylic.

I have been making both abstract and figurative paintings, quite a number of them have a historical origin. This work called "Frontline Flower" is an abstract work with its origin in WW 1. I tried to show that live goes on, no matter what. The flower has grown up from the devastation that was the WW1 frontline in Belgium and France. The centre of the flower is made from a ripped up photo originally showing the battlefield of Thiepval near the Somme and glued on the canvas with an acrylic medium. My thinking behind this is that although life goes on, we won't forget.
The painting is executed on 300gsm NOT Fabriano Watercolor Paper, with a layer of gesso. Various color washes have been applied,followed by a layer of irridescent medium for protection. Additional layers of color was were added and subsequently scraped, rubbed, or treated with alcohol splatter. On the left side some red and yellow spray paint was applied with small object in situ that were subsequently removed, reminiscent to a memory of an explosion. Finally the ripped photo was added and covered with a violet wash and covered with a spray varnish. The complexity of the process mirrors the complexity of the subject matter and the abstract nature of this reality.

The painting comes without a frame and will be send rolled in a tube.