Swamp Oak Leaf

One of my earliest forays into photorealism. There's not much of a story to it: On my way to the supermarket one autumn day, I noticed this swamp oak leaf in a puddle. Something in that accidental composition spoke to me, so I took a photo and painted it. I think it's the first painting in which I followed that path, to look for motives in nature that bring a large part of the artistic value with them, and just need a bit of framing on my part to communicate their beauty to the wider audience. This approach has stuck with me, and will surely feature in future works. There is so much that is already enchanting, beautiful, or awesome right in front of our noses, it just takes the right kind of attention!