Flowers have inspired artists throughout history, from the scientific studies of Joséphine Bonaparte’s Chateau de Malmaison rose garden by watercolorist Pierre-Joseph Redouté to the gloriously blooming chrysanthemums by the typically abstract Piet Mondrian hung in the Museum of Modern Art. Mixing oils and house paint on canvas in her studio in Millerton, N.Y., Alexis England has caught a case of flower fever, ditching her once monochrome signature palette for a new series of abstract botanicals in neon, flirting with gaudy glamour in an impenitent affair with color.
Debuting at Troutbeck, the romantic hotel and restaurant in Amenia, N.Y., England’s series “Florescence” is currently splashed throughout Troutbeck's Manor House — including a Barbie-pink canvas behind the bar. “Everything before this was a mono-palette, white on green, so my paintings looked like x-rays,” England said while in attendance at the opening reception on Friday, May 5. “I used to love restriction and now this new series is just bonkers.
“I don’t even remember painting a lot of these at first. It’s very freeing, and I’m a very messy painter — very gestural. Later I’ll come back and hone in, and hone in, and hone in and add all these tiny details that most people don’t pick up on.”
While some in the series have obvious inspiration — the downward drooping petals of an iris or the tight-fisted buds of a bundle of peonies, most are too abstract to pin down. England said that’s the point. “It’s not about the flowers for me. It’s the shape. I’ll step on a flower and f--- it up to find a good shape. It may start as a painting of an iris or an orchid, but by the time I’m finished with it doesn’t matter.”
On view at Troutbeck in Amenia, N.Y. through July 5.
Untitled work by Alexis England Photo by Alexander Wilburn
Untitled work by Alexis England Photo by Alexander Wilburn
Untitled work by Alexis England Photo by Alexander Wilburn
