Salon 21 is pleased to present “Florals For Spring,” a solo exhibition by Sophie Edell, opening to the public on Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

The concept of the exhibition came about when Edell created an initial work based on wildflowers growing in her yard, where the complex interplay of line and color inspired her to adopt a new approach to painting. As with many of her representational pieces, she began these floral works with a vibrant foundational underpainting. This technique took on new variations with her decision to apply further layers of black paint to represent shadow and patches of corresponding abstract color wherever flowers were found in the initial image. During her ongoing explorations, Edell has found flowers to be an ideal subject matter due to the boundless range of hues, shapes, and the often chaotic and unexpected patterns they assume as they bloom.

Each subsequent floral work became increasingly abstract as Edell allowed her intuition and the nature of the paint itself to guide her process, playing with different combinations of color for the ground of each painting, and used various methods of paint application to achieve new effects. In this way, each piece created for “Florals for Spring” informed the next, with Edell’s playful exploration birthing new visual ideas resulting in 25 unique yet tethered pieces.