‘Everything’- Big Tulip Flower Painting on Canvas

This hand-painted canvas of a La Belle Époque tulip is sure to bring warmth and joy to any home. The large canvas painting features an exquisite tulip in a blend of vivid colours, making it a timeless ornamental accent. Enjoy beauty and class with this stunning floral piece.

Title:        Everything- La belle Epoque tulip big flower painting

Medium: Oil on Cradled Panel

Size:         76x76cm x 2cm

' La Belle Epoque’ tulips, to me, have everything. Double gently furling petals, rich warm tones from magenta & soft lilac to antique gold & gentle peach. The longer they stand, the colours mutate into softer burnished tones, turning into soft blush & amber. Firmly my very favourite tulip. They really have it all. In the same way, this painting changes it's tones dependant on the light & time of day.

It brings a glowing warmth to a space, generating joy & gentle soothing.

Painting a series of three, inspired by the sea of them in my flower border, my thoughts turn inwards. Everything, having it all… what does that really mean? Often in conversations you hear the words ‘Oh, they have it all’, ‘they have everything.’ We think of those terms as someone who must be happy, must have total satisfaction in life. But is that necessarily the truth?

What is having everything? A pipe dream tick list of possessions or things which we value in life? We dream, we wish, we mentally spend a lottery win & are convinced that if our list of desires was presented to us, then surely, we would have happiness? But would our perception of everything really bring joy, or would the parameters just keep expanding & having everything would keep meaning having more? Ever striving for some unattainable goal? If we had everything would we just become bored because there is nothing left to strive for

Would everything being easy bring its own form of discontentment?

Over the years I’ve seen people who in theory have everything on a materialistic level. Can buy anything, go anywhere, treat themselves & indulge in life’s pleasures. They could acquire anything they wanted, but bizarrely were utterly miserable, spending their time thinking up problems & dramas to keep themselves busy. Those who genuinely appreciate how lucky they are seemed more kind & contented.

Does getting everything easily, with no striving or working for it, no dreaming & planning just breed unhappiness? Is it part of our nature to be motivated by effort & goals? From the outside, we look in & long for their lives, believing we would do better if we had it all.

I’ve also known people who from the outside have very little indeed on the material side but seem joyful, happy & genuinely love their lives. Every tiny success, every new thing is appreciated & valued. Their children opening a solitary gift on a birthday & cherishing it with glee as opposed to a pile of extravagant gifts opened & tossed aside to look at the next. I’ve seen these people with so little live a life of gratitude & blissfully happy. Appreciating health, togetherness, family, love & time together. Looking always at what they have, not at what is missing. They have all they want & are content.

So, do we really want to have ‘everything’?

I guess the answer is about really about how content we are within ourselves. Our dreams of having it all being modest & wrapped around revelling in thanks for small things.

Maybe having too much in itself creates an unreachable ‘everything’?

I guess we all so different. While I painted my tulip this idea of what is ‘everything’ meandered through my mind & reminded me to find happiness in this very moment.  To just look at this beautiful bloom & see all its gifts. That having everything in this moment is about how I perceive the ‘right now’.

Over the years my idea of what having everything would look like has morphed so much. In my childhood it was yearning for a peaceful family home. I’m my twenties ambition & wanting to prove myself through what I have. In my thirties is was craving love & relationship. My forties longing for life to be easier & to give my child ‘everything’.  My fifties brought the greatest shift. In seeing that everything is all about ‘everything I have’, not ‘everything I want’.

I am very clear on what my everything would be these days. It’s much simpler than at any other time in my life. Health, time with my family, a little stability & freedom. The freedom to spend time doing what I love & a safe future for my child. The ‘if I won the lottery’ list is all about a stress free life with the joys of a holiday here & there, a couple of treats like a meal out each month… beyond that it all goes to giving others their ‘everything’ in secret & seeing them have joy