Last year I went to the Denver Botanic Gardens to take some pictures of their waterlilies. I wondered all around snapping a picture of anything I thought would be worth painting or using for reference. I came upon some lovely dahlias, one of my favorite flowers. Earlier this summer I dug through my photographs looking for something vibrant to paint and stumbled on those pictures. I has never painted a dahlia before and thought it would a great exercise for me. I started the painting as usual, a vibrant ink under-painting and layered in my darks. As I moved on to the blooms, I found myself struggling. Not giving up,…