I’m not one to usually enjoy paintings of flowers, but I recently met a local San Francisco artist who has changed my outlook. Magdalene Chan’s paintings of flowers and landscapes really focus the eye on what is truly beautiful, and often overlooked, in the natural world around us.

There’s nothing overly conceptual about her. She gives us color, form, line — beauty at its most basic. Or so it seems. How is it that, for thousands of years, all sorts of people have taken pleasure in the “basic” depictions of nature, of flowers, of fields, of animal life? It’s as basic as breathing… and as vital.

• Further Information: Magdalene Chan [magdalenechan.com]
• Detail: “Sonoma Lavendar” [Original Watercolor]
• Detail: “God’s Tears” [Framed Print of Original Watercolor]