Still Lifes - Flowers | Paul Zapatka

Still Lifes - Flowers

For this website page I chose to show a variety of flowers I either painted or drew as still lifes for my viewing audience. They show my appreciation for modern color via Matisse, having studied him in studio creative painting classes at American University. They also show my love for all kinds of flowers, small, big, or whatever shape or in whatever painted or drawn composition. I hope my audience can get a grasp of all this when seeing my full range of flowers.

Azaleas(Multi-Colored)(After Matisse) 2009 oil 21 x 22 inches $325

When painting this still life I gathered three colors of azaleas, put them in a maroon vase and showed my viewer three inspirational motivations. First, Van Gogh's major motto: "Color in a picture is like enthusiasm in life." Second, a former American University's Astronomy Professor's declaration one spring in his undergraduate class: "Spring has Sprung." Thirdly, to convince my viewer that it takes all kinds of colored azaleas to make a Washingtonian Spring go round in a spacious, solid vase.

Cherry Blossoms(won the Third Place Award at The Art League Gallery in Alexandria, VA in 2013)

2010 oil 34 x 16 inches SOLD

Chrysanthemums 2009 oil 24 x 20 inches $350

Iris 2010 oil 11 x 14 inches $300

For the first and only time yet in my art career, I painted a still life with my left hand and held the object of the painting, the Iris in my right hand. My aim for the viewer was to get him/her to appreciate close-up the intricate shapes and many shades of color that make up the insides of an Iris intimately. Here I undoubtedly was thinking of some of O'Keeffe's close-up paintings of flowers.

Roses 2012 chalk pastel on black paper 20 x 16 inches $275

Sunflowers(after Bailey) 2008 watercolor 28 x 22 inches $300

For this sunflower still life again influenced by the Mid-western American artist, William Bailey, I chose to paint the background similar to one of his with down-to-earth, olive greens reflective of their stems convincingly. For the foreground around the base of the still life vase I chose a warm golden-orange almost like "burnt-earth" dirt, color.

The viewer, therefore, gets a real earthen-feel for the sunflowers.

Three Sunflowers 2010 oil 11 x 24 inches $300

When I painted these three sunflowers I directly show the viewer my composition and overall painting's influence by A Van Gogh still life of a cut sunflower. His is more expressively emotional when painted, mine more controlled and modern looking on flat blue background and all the flowers petals and leaves also flat strokes of oil-painted yellows, golds, and greens.

Tiger Lillies and Daisy 2009 oil pastel on gray paper 22 x 18 inches $300

Vase of Azaleas 2013 oil pastel 20.25 x 16.25 inches $295

For these azaleas that I drew I again show the direct influence and inspiration of the artist, Van Gogh. I showed convincingly the wild and freely emotional excitement in my bright, warm colored Azaleas in all their nuances of pinks and rosy-reds the way some of Van Gogh's still lifes do also for the viewer very well.

Vase of Orange Flowers on Marble 2013 oil pastel 28 x 22 inches $300

Vase of Yellow Roses on Light Purple 2017 chalk pastel on light purple paper $300