Explore the pictorial possibilities of each subject! 

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) aligned herself with no school of painting; her work resembled nothing that has gone before it.  She always went her own way.  By her own account, her aesthetic was informed by her ability to select, not describe.  "Nothing is less real than realism," she explained.  "It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things." 

O'Keeffe generally explored the pictorial possibilities of each subject in a series, usually three or four pictures but sometimes as many as a dozen works.  Through repeated reworking of familiar themes that extended over several years and even decades, she produced an enormous body of work that is intensely focused and unusually coherent. 

The subjects that O'Keeffe painted were taken from life and related the minute nuances of a setting's or an object's physical appearance and thereby came to know it even better.  Often her pictures convey a highly subjective impression of an image, although it is depicted in a straightforward and realistic manner.  Such subjective interpretations were frequently colored by important events in the artist's personal and professional life. 

O'Keeffe wanted to capture the essence of flowers, paintings them big so that people will be surprised into taking time to look at them.  She said that " Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small - we haven't time - and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time."  She also said to herself “I will paint what I see - what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it.

The above painting was done with a palette knife by Sanchia Lin at the oil painting workshop with Mr. Lee Kim.   Mr. Lee Kim is a graduate of UCLA, and worked as an industrial and technical artist.  Presently he teaches at El Camino College and Palos Verdes  Art Center.