Seeds After the Flood

Story from the Brown Flowers series.

Seeds After the Flood was painted in the Spring of 2026, at a time when severe flooding hit the Loire Valley in France, where I live and paint, as well as other parts of the world, forcing people and animals to seek shelter elsewhere and leave their homes and places of refuge. For weeks, the days of heavy, endless rain kept me confined to my home studio, listening to Alela Diane music on repeat and trying to find a little warmth in the small things of everyday life.

This painting was born from this waterlogged earth, from the mud left behind everywhere by the rushing waters, and from the thought of the seeds buried beneath it, waiting to come back to life in these saturated soils. I imagined the flowers that would come to replace those that had bloomed in the midst of the chaos, their petals bruised, peeled and rusted by the rain and winds, leaving us for a while without the vivid bursts of color that had brought life after Winter.

Plants, like us, move through extremes, upheavals, and seasons that no longer quite resemble the ones we have known. Their resilience at that time reminded me that life can continue to find its way, even in the midst of despair.

A few weeks later, the rains gave way to extreme heat, and somewhere between water and fire, Seeds After the Flood feels deeply gentle to me. The browns and shimmering flowers are comforting, wrapping us in beautiful warm shades as we move through this moment of transition, one season at a time.