Under the Lilypads was born from the realization that even when things appear quiet, there’s a whole world moving gently, persistently, just out of view.

This painting invites you into that hidden world. It began not with a grand vision, but with a simple question: What lives beneath the calm? As I built up layers of sculpted acrylic, carving the soft curve of lilypads and layering color into each petal and shadow, the scene slowly revealed itself.

Not just what was above the water, but the imagined world beneath it—where little fishes flicker, stems drift, and life carries on in elegant, unnoticed rhythms.