About the work

False Jasmine in Stripes
Study III · from the series Pentagon
Wax pastel, graphite, and colored pencils on paper
50 × 30.9 cm · 2026
Unique original work, signed by the artist

Five flowers from a single branch of false jasmine become five bands of color, arranged from top to bottom. The three open flowers occupy the wide bands, two white and one violet. The two that have not yet opened sit in the narrow bands. Between them runs a dark line, the stem, which both separates and joins. Above and below, the green of the leaves closes the composition. Over the bands, the yellow centers of the flowers set the rhythm, and the five-pointed star inscribed in each corolla leaves a fine trace, like the orbit of an atom circling its nucleus.

It is the third study in the series Pentagon. As the centers of the flowers were marked, the painting began to read like a musical staff: color ordered in bands and geometry repeating like notes. At this point the artist tried to build up the figurative flower in detail and noticed that it took strength away from the composition. She then understood that the purpose was not to depict the jasmine, but to investigate the relationship between form and color. She stopped adding and only lightly heightened the lines of the petals to preserve that orbital trace.

This study holds the moment when the border between the figurative and the abstract is crossed, and the intuition of knowing when a work is already enough. It is the starting point for an abstract work in preparation, in which the order of the bands and the pentagon will become the central theme.