This is a family portrait, it actually started life as a commission, the family that commissioned the piece had just been to Hawaii on vacation and wanted a painting of orchids to remind them of their trip and to symbolise them as a family in some way.

So, the two full flowers represent the parents with the aspiring young buds symbolising the children, just leaving the picture on the top edge are the petals of a flower representing the generation that has passed on before.

The painting speaks about the joy of life in all its stages whilst acknowledging that even death itself is only another step, a step into paradise itself where all the burdens and sorrows of life will be finally washed away in the eternity of Gods love. The best is yet to come.