Found Flowers: Floral portraits of flowers left in remembrance—painted from the Breast Cancer Memorial Garden in San Francisco.
Late Bloom – Forgiveness
Late Bloom – Becoming
Late Boom – Ember
Late Bloom – Gift
Found Flowers
Floral portraits from the San Francisco Breast Cancer Memorial Garden
I paint to prolong memory.
These floral portraits begin in places shaped by love and loss—memorial and healing gardens where someone has quietly left a flower beside a name. This series starts with a real bloom found on-site at the San Francisco Breast Cancer Memorial Garden. I sketch from life, and then return to the studio to let watercolor deepen what the eye saw and the heart held.
I’m drawn to the flowers that lean—toward a plaque, a bench, a quiet dedication. Not the most perfect or symmetrical, but the ones holding presence. Each is a witness. A companion. A flicker of life still tethered to a name we don’t want to forget.
There’s a beauty in that complexity. As one breast cancer survivor put it, “more complex, a bit ravaged, but beautiful in its own way.” That’s what these paintings try to honor—not just what blooms, but what endures.
If you’d like to create something in honor of a person or place, I’d love to talk. You can commission a custom piece, collaborate on a floral portrait series, or join me on a watercolor expedition to begin your own story.
To support continued research and care, 10% of all proceeds from this piece and its prints will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.