This piece is inspired by the tulip economic crash of 1637 that took place in The Netherlands. It began when the tulip flower arrived in Vienna from the Ottoman Empire in 1554 and made its way across Europe. Signs of wealth vary throughout the ages and for a short while, the tulip flower was amongst one of those signs. The wealthy would plant it in their gardens to demonstrate it.

For the full story of what happened, see below for my article written on the topic.

The Evolution of Tulip Mania

Painting the Piece

I was inspired by the use of colour of Anthony Fry. I noticed in various pieces, the bold use of colour, the intricate use of each square cm of the canvas and a general lenience to warmer tones. I took this as inspiration to come up with my own palette and way of executing this piece.

I used emulsion paints to complete this piece. The blue background is made up of layers of diluted blue and purple paint. When applying the paint, I assured to pay attention to each square cm, to see what else I could do to build interest and texture. Certain areas of each layer are more heavily inundated with paint to create the textures.

The bubbles were next to paint. This is the first time I have painted bubbles and they turned out rather well. Using an image as inspiration, I began with the white outline and then built up the layers, blending them out where necessary.

The tulip is inspired by the broken tulip, petals will lots of colour rather than the simpler tulips of one block colour. I built up the layers in the tulip detailing, using a variety of shades. There was no plan with the pattern, I just went with what I felt in the moment and referring to the reference image of a broken tulip that I enjoyed.

Overall it is a very successful piece, so much so that it inspired two more pieces within the tulip bubble series.