From The End of the World

60” x 48”

61.5” x 49.5” framed (maple floater)

Oil and acrylic on panel

From the End of the World depicts a classic view of the famous French Garden: Serre de la Madone, or Madonna’s Greenhouse. Lawrence Johnston constructed the gardens between 1924 and 1939 to house his collection of rare plant species that he’d bring back “from the end of the world”. We visited this Provencial garden that lies just north of Monaco on an overcast day. There was a moment when the sun broke through the gloom and landed neatly on the female statue that presides in the center of the pond - not actually a statue of the Madonna, or the Virgin Mary, despite the garden’s name. It was in this interlude that I felt the place hum abruptly and loudly with feminine energy, the shapely figure quietly holding court over the garden as she has for almost 100 years. It is as if she has been charged with protecting the precious botanical collection all these years - a task that strikes me as notably female. I laid the oil on thick in this painting, an attempt to convey some semblance of the multi-textured nature of the actual gardens.

This painting is part of my solo exhibition “Salty and Dark” at COL Gallery in San Francisco. For purchase inquiries, please contact Callie Jones at callie@colgallery.co