Garden in May by Maria Oakey Dewing, ca. 1895, oil on canvas 23 5/8 x 32 1/2 in. (60.1 x 82.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly

I love the work of Maria Oakey Dewing. She captured the wild beauty of her garden with its intertwined stems and frilly blooms. Her passion for gardening, as well as painting, is evident in this amazing artwork. In many of her paintings, the garden is seen as if through the viewpoint of a butterfly, close to the ground with a flourish of overlapping blooms. And May is the month when the garden comes to a crescendo of spring blossoms with the first opening of roses.

“The flower offers a removed beauty that exists only for beauty, more abstract than it can be in the human being, even more exquisite. One may begin with the human figure at the logical and realistic, but in painting the flower one must even begin at the exquisite and distinguished.” 

— Maria Oakey Dewing, Art and Progress, 1915

Her composition is almost circular showing a lush garden starting with the delightful smaller white blooms, then leading the viewer's eye to the focal point of the larger pink rose on the right. Its warm pink hues are offset by the contrast of the deep green foilage and her sharpest edges rest there. She captures the dense foliage and layers of petals, creating a sense of depth and texture. The flowers are intricately painted with attention to light and shadow, adding realism to the image and her masterful use of hard and soft edges guide you to what she wants you to see in her lovely garden.