Once in a while, I get to visit a public garden and see wondrous things. For many years I snapped hundreds of photos in these gardens for painting references. If I photographed flowers such as these orchids I found at a university greenhouse, my painting would ignore the blemishes and “paint them out.” However, I captured this image of formerly white cattleya orchids because of their blemishes; though they’ve been damaged either by drops of something falling on them or (more likely) aging, they still had a lovely fragrance. In fact, it was their heady fragrance that first drew me. I was intrigued that such a wonderful scent could be produced by such a flawed beauty and saw a parable.
It’s a great temptation to judge people by their appearances—or lack thereof but there’s a lot more to people than the way they look. Though as an artist, I find the visual the most interesting, I’m glad God didn’t stop there.
It’s been a cool, crisp morning filled with bird symphonies. One bird sang, “Figaro, figaro, figaro!”
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