With this piece, I am using a different approach to layering different pastels. Working on a cotton canvas paper, I first applied oil pastels, where my intent was to create texture and movement (especially on the darker, background areas). I then sealed this layer with an oil-pastel fixative. Then I used the softer L’Ecu pastels to highlight the petals, to try to give them a luminescence, to get them to glow as if illuminated from within. I applied a final fixative layer over that.
This piece was several months in the making. I found myself setting this piece aside when other projects surfaced, returning to it every now and then through the spring and summer of 2022.