How Fantasy Flowers Start to Glow

acrylics, plant prints, spoon texture and warm oil glazes

Some flowers do not want to stay flat.

This painting began with simple acrylic flower shapes.

At first, the flowers were there, but they felt a little too polite — too flat, too quiet, almost too well-behaved. I wanted them to become more alive, more tactile, more like fantasy flowers that grow somewhere between a summer garden and an inner dreamscape.

So I started building the painting in layers.

First came the acrylic base: loose floral shapes, colour fields and the first feeling of movement. Then I began to play with markers, plant prints and unexpected marks. Little white spots appeared and lightened the atmosphere. The painting started to breathe.

But the flowers still needed something more.

That was when I brought in my secret weapon: spoons.

With spoons and bright acrylics, I pulled, pressed and shaped the paint into thicker petal-like surfaces. The flowers were no longer boring. They began to rise from the background, almost like they wanted to become sculptural.

After that came the warm oil glazes.

This is the part where the painting started to glow. The oil paint added depth, warmth and a juicy summer feeling. The flowers became richer, softer and more dimensional — almost too lush, perhaps, but fantasy flowers do not have to be modest.

The painting is still unfinished, but already the flowers are glowing with the feeling of Finnish summer: intense, brief, colourful and full of life.

Some flowers refuse to stay flat.
These ones decided to bloom in 3D.