What a Banana Tree Does to a Room

Caroline Therese
Artist Caroline Therese in her dining room with her large-scale botanical painting "After the Rain," a 72x96 mixed media work on canvas.

Some paintings you look at. "After the Rain" is one you walk into.

It started the way most of my work does — a photograph, a digital sketch, a cream-colored base coat on a 72 by 96 canvas. From there it was layers. Paint, charcoal, collage, line work, deep greens building on top of each other until the surface had weight and density. Until it felt like something you could push through.

Early layer of "After the Rain" showing red paint, conte crayon, and charcoal on canvas — part of Caroline Therese's mixed media process.
FOURTH LAYER: RED PAINT, CONTE CRAYON, & CHARCOAL 
 
You won't see red in a real banana tree. I'm not painting what's there — I'm painting what it feels like to have seen it. The heat of it. The aliveness. Red makes the greens more green. It makes the whole thing pulse.
 
Paint colors used in "After the Rain" — a range of greens from yellow-green to deep teal, with red, mixed in Caroline Therese's studio.
CORE PAINT COLORS USED

I wanted the piece to feel like a fever dream of the natural world. Not a record of it. A memory of it, saturated and a little untamed. The moment just after a storm passes when everything is dripping and heavy and the air is humid.

Caroline Therese applying the final varnish layer to "After the Rain," showing the layered surface of greens, reds, and charcoal marks beneath.

APPLYING THE FINAL VARNISH LAYER

 

When I see it in my home — the deep greens, the shadows, the way it fills the wall — it feels alive. I could sit and stare at it and keep finding details I didn't notice before. 

Not decoration. A place you can actually go.

"After the Rain" by Caroline Therese, a 72x96 mixed media botanical painting, styled in the artist's dining room.
AFTER THE RAIN | 72"X96" STYLED IN MY DINING ROOM

 

"After the Rain" is available now. Join my mailing list to be among the first to know when new work releases.

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