I created these watercolor paintings in 2006, inspired by old family slides of the floral pageants from the 1940’s and 1950’s in Bermuda. During the Easter season, Bermudians made elaborate hats out of local flowers and botanical material, to be paraded around and were judged on their beauty, artistry and originality. The pageants played an important social role for Bermudians, at time living in a close-knit community, in relative isolation.

This time and place no longer exists for Bermuda. The artistic, ecological and social aspects of the floral pageants inspired me to make these paintings. At first glance, these images struck me as both beautiful and bizarre, a perfumed nostalgia of a bygone era.