I don’t quite know why I felt compelled to do this painting. An inner voice just guided me to it and said this is the painting I should do. Do you believe in mysticism? 

When I finished the painting Sunday morning, I didn’t have a clue as to a story to go with it. Little did I know that strangers in a far away place were making the story for me.  

Later in the day on Sunday after I had finished this painting, I got two email messages. The messages bore good news. The messages were from Vincent Miller, Publisher, International Artist magazine, notifying me that two of my paintings had been short listed in their international competition Challenge No. 59 “Still Life & Florals”. They were requesting larger images at a higher resolution for these two paintings for the next round of judging. Last month, July, I had submitted several of my better floral paintings, ones that had not won any previous awards, to their competition.

Early yesterday morning, my grandson Edmund Duban, helped me respond to their request and we got it sent off just in time for me to get to the Board Meeting of Watercolor Art Society – Houston on time. After the meeting, I had this painting scanned and contemplated unsuccessfully the rest of day trying to come up with a suitable story. 

It is the daily custom in our home for my wife, Corinne, and I to eat dinner while watching her favorite TV show Wheel of Fortune. At the tail-end of the show yesterday, just as the contestant was giving the wheel a final shove, my Blackberry vibrates and then chimes that I have received an email. Little did I anticipate that the email message waiting on the Blackberry for me to read would be a milestone in my new art career. 

The email message was again from Vincent Miller, the Publisher of International Artists magazine. The first word was “CONGRATULATIONS!”.  It further stated that my painting “Springtime Yellow Lily” had been selected for their International Artist Challenge #59 ‘Still Life & Florals’ Competition and that it will be published in their October/November issue. They intend to devote a full page to the painting along with statements from me on My Inspiration, My Design Strategy and My Working Process. 

In thinking about what to write for their first request subject, “My Inspiration”, I was thinking about why I do paintings of flowers. You know, I used to concentrate on wildlife and landscapes. My mind wandered back to that fateful day last October on the trip to Nacogdoches with the Geriatric Art Society (GAS) guys when it rained the whole time of our trip ruining our plans for doing outdoor plein air paintings. Suffering from “cabin fever” there, I had wandered out from my room during one of the lulls in the rain storms and found some canna lilies. In studying those canna lilies, I got the idea to do a painting of them from an up close perspective. Then it suddenly dawned on me that the painting I had just finished, the one shown up above, was of those very same canna lilies at the lodge near Nacogdoches, that first got me started doing flower paintings.  

I think there is the likely probability that if it had not rained on that trip to Nacogdoches. I would still be doing paintings of wildlife and landscapes and this flower painting “Springtime Yellow Lily” would not exist.  

I have to wonder again why I felt compelled to do this painting.