The inspiration for my Brass Band Succulents, a series of only two, was a bit unorthodox for my work. When I finished work on my large scale Frenchmen St Brass Band painting I found that I had quite a lot of extra paint left over. The colors I used didn’t fit with the next paintings I had lined up, and I didn’t want to do smaller paintings featuring details from the Brass Band painting as I sometimes do. Succulents have become a recurring motif for me within my Botanicals theme, and I had recently captured a few photos of a particularly beautiful plant from my garden. A perfect fit!

Each of the Brass Band Succulents paintings uses a subset of the Brass Band palette, but there is surprisingly little overlap between them. I have to confess that I am particularly drawn to the combination of orange, teal, and red of Brass Band Succulents #1, but I didn’t want to repeat the same for the second painting! However, I was honestly surprised by how much I liked how Brass Band Succulents #2 came out when it was complete, with its more subdued tones and feel. 

Though these pieces may have initially been unplanned, they fit perfectly within my body of work. Succulents are always an interesting subject which are full of interesting, explosive shapes that can seemingly handle any unorthodox color palette I throw at them.