This painting was inspired by my mother. There is so much about her to find admirable but an understated value of who she is as a woman is her ability to create serenity in times of chaos. I wanted to recreate the atmosphere of calmness that she brings in desperate times of need, without explicitly saying “you are now here” with a detailed landscape. The water lilies were inspired by her love for Monet, something that I share with her. Stillness of mind is what I strived to achieve with this painting, so mellow colors like blues and greens, and occasionally purples, were the most obvious choice. I also thought it felt a little lonely, so I added a small frog in bottom right corner. I wanted the frog to be discovered and not presented so I kept it in the shadows of the foreground. Take a break and stay a while.