Lilac

A woman in a dark, loosely painted dress stands in profile at the center of a dense wall of blooming lilac and other flowers. Her face and shoulders are the only clearly defined forms; the surrounding blossoms in white, magenta, pink and green dissolve into broad, gestural passages of paint. One hand is raised toward her chest as she looks off to the side.

Thick, dragged strokes and loaded impasto build the flowers into overlapping curtains of color, applied with a palette knife and brush in rapid, confident passes. The contrast between the softly modeled face and the abstracted floral field gives the picture a hazy, dreamlike atmosphere, as if the figure is emerging from or dissolving into the blossoms.