La Flor del Flamboyan

This oil on canvas piece is 4’ x 4’. El Flamboyan is the national tree of the Dominican Republic. It is literally like a giant cherry tree with thousands of tiny flowers, bunched up in such a way that from the distance it just looks mostly red, orange and white with green leaves.

It has been said that in order to consecrate as a painter, Dominican artists must paint a flamboyant tree. But when I came close up with one of these tiny flowers I saw that each one of them were a perfect orquid! I grabbed a big branch that was full of the tiny flowers and I set out to paint “La Flor del Flamboyan” on a gigantic canvas, bigger than me, because I wanted to portray the greatness found in the smallest of flowers.

The detail of this greatness is what we so often walk by and miss, distracted by the bigger things around us. In this small, tiny flower…is where life is found.