Description
Put Your Lips to the Lilies and Live Your Life — Acrylic on Unstretched Canvas, 1500 × 1200 mm
Acrylic on Unstretched Canvas
150 × 120 cm
R16 000
Put Your Lips to the Lilies and Live Your Life is a dramatic, large-scale floral built on a bold contrast of light and dark. A cluster of white arum lilies rises from a bank of deep blue-green foliage, their pale trumpet blooms glowing against the shadowed leaves. Behind them the canvas opens into a blaze of warm yellow, coral and red, like sunlight or fire breaking through a night garden.
Julie Tugwell paints with rich, painterly confidence, setting cool indigo and teal against hot gold and scarlet so the lilies seem lit from within. The flowers and leaves are rendered in loose, expressive strokes, full of movement, while the fiery centre of the composition gives the work its heat and its sense of celebration, echoing the life-affirming spirit of the title.
This is an atmospheric, emotionally warm painting with real theatrical presence. At this generous scale it commands a large wall in a lounge, dining room or stairwell, its striking light-and-dark drama making it an instant focal point. A romantic, uplifting original for those drawn to bold colour and the timeless beauty of the arum lily.
Style
Julie Tugwell is a contemporary South African artist whose work shares qualities with expressive, colour-led traditions, favouring energetic brushwork and an emotional response to her subject over strict realism. In her florals she often reaches for warm, singing colour and rhythmic line, echoing the freedom of the Fauves while remaining entirely her own. She captures the vitality and atmosphere of her flowers rather than a literal likeness, creating original artworks that bring warmth, character and considered sophistication to contemporary interiors.
Please note: Images are provided as a guide to the artwork’s size and style. As each original painting is photographed under different lighting conditions and viewed on different screens, colours may vary slightly from the original artwork.
