What remains when beauty fades, but presence lingers?

This piece began in stillness—the kind you don’t hear, but feel.

A quietness that lingers in dried leaves, in the lacework of what remains.

This is a hydrangea at the end of its cycle.
Its bloom now a delicate skeleton, bleached and weathered, yet still holding its structure—its dignity.
What once was lush is now reduced to essence.

Before the brush, I begin with wax.
Wax becomes the ground on which everything rests. It holds texture, captures memory, and mimics the resilience of botanical forms: yielding, resisting, softening.

From there, the painting unfolds with close observation.
Line by line, detail by detail.
Each vein, shadow, and contour painted not only as it is—but as it feels: suspended between decay and grace.

This is Botanical Realism: a practice of seeing, honouring, and rendering the natural world with care and clarity.
It’s a way of recording not just what we observe, but what we notice—when we truly slow down.

Now, this painting is here. Quiet, but present.

Ready to be seen.

With love,

Isel x