New York
Alexandra Averbach, Blush, oil, 36 x 44.
“I LOVE THE spring,” declares New York City artist Alexandra Averbach. “I’m always outside looking for flowers in the springtime.” Her winning entry, BLUSH, is an homage to her favorite season and one of her favorite flowers. “Peonies are beautiful, with spots of red underneath their pet-als,” Averbach says of her oil painting’s rosy-pink stars, which she purchased at a local bodega. Back in her living-room studio, she photographed the blossoms in direct sunlight. “Luckily, I have windows that are south-facing,” says the artist, who snaps hundreds of reference shots of her floral arrangements. “The petals glow in the sun, and I love the look of that.”
For Averbach, choosing the right blooms to paint is the first step; then comes selecting the proper vase to complement their petals, leaves, and stems. It took her a while to find the perfect floral match for the wide-mouthed glass jar in BLUSH. “I was aching to use that jar,” says Averbach. “With peonies, because they are so lush and full, they really fit.”
Mostly a self-taught artist, Averbach started out painting flowers on a small scale; now many of her floral canvases measure up to 50 inches. “It adds this monumental quality to the flowers and makes them more visually striking,” she says. The self-described contemporary realist paints in “extremely thin” layers of paint that lend her works a luminous, watercolor-like transparency. Needless to say—given her meticulous painting style—the artist’s larger paintings take longer to complete. “With flowers, I don’t mind,” she says. “I get hypnotized when painting them.” Find Averbach’s work at Gallery Henoch, New York, NY; Skidmore Contemporary Art, Santa Monica, CA; Arden Gallery, Boston, MA; and William A. Karges Fine Art, Carmel, CA. —Kim Agricola
This story was featured in the December 2019/January 2020 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art December 2019/January 2020 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.
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