A collection of nearly 30 original oil paintings by Daniel Skolz. If this sentiment resonates with you, please view the full gallery and consider purchasing at: botanarts.com/store
“Lemon in a …”
A lemon is a common object, one we all seem to know well enough. A yellow oval essentially. But as all objects do, it reflects and interacts with its environment in ways that make it distorted, and sometimes not so yellow or oval at all. This collection of paintings explores the range of possibilities as new interactions, colored reflections, and distortions occur between the lemon and its environment.
These lemons remind us that we too are part of our environment, reflecting back to it its influence on us. Potentially moving from environment to environment, setting to setting, social group to social group, being impressed upon and reflecting back what serves us proximally. But the core of who we are as individuals, a "yellow oval" perhaps, or perhaps not, isn't inherently altered. And we might even impress on our environment in evident ways as well.
Ultimately, it is about the ways in which our surroundings reflect on us, and the sacrifices we make to fit in.
About Daniel
My entry into painting followed a love of art and nature but the practicality of pursuing education in science. I completed a doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in plant ecological genetics, investigating how plants interact with their environments by changing aspects of themselves in response to stress. After, I found my way back to art in a substantial way, first in a tattoo apprenticeship and then in learning to paint in oil. My tattoo work is almost solely botanical in subject, or nature-themed at the very least (featuring birds, insects, and other creatures typically accompanied by plants). My paintings continue that theme but largely in documenting the beauty and diversity of plants in domestic life (e.g. heirloom varieties at farmer's markets, the internationality of a local grocer’s produce section, and the seasonality of local landscapes).