Flowers

Flowers

100 × 100 cm, acrylic, metal leaf, author’s technique, 2023

This piece was created in 2023, during the full-scale war.
At a time when cities were being destroyed and people lived in silence and tension, the artist chose to paint not ruin, not smoke, but flowers.
And in that — a different kind of strength.

The composition centers around a bright, golden core — light contained, not scattered.
Encircling it is a flexible chain. It’s not a symbol of captivity, but of containment — of holding onto the sacred. A frame for light.

Surrounding this nucleus is a ring of flowers and herbs — poppies, wheat, sage, lavender, mint — plants that carry the memory of earth and ancestors.
This is not floral decor. These are symbols:

• Poppies — remembrance, dignity, sacrifice

• Wheat — life, stability, home

• Sage, mint, lavender — cleansing, clarity, strength

Each element is formed in relief — textured, tactile, like a scar that no longer bleeds but cannot be erased.
The yellow background is intense, not soft. A color of resilience, harvest, inner sun.
Not meant to soothe — meant to stand firm.

The artist wrote a poem alongside the painting — not to illustrate it, but to say what the image holds in silence:

Through storms of sorrow, hopelessness, and grief,
Where pain and despair tear the soul apart,
In the desert of darkness — through years, through centuries,
All of Ukraine lifts its hands in prayer toward the light.

Let the earth be covered with a shield of prayers,
Let misfortune leave us behind,
Let all horrors and pain sink into oblivion,
No matter what — may this land once again bring us grace and flowers.
— Larisa Ruy, 2023

This painting is not about flowers. It is about the will to remain alive and whole.
To carry light in the midst of darkness.
To protect beauty — not as escape, but as defiance.

“Flowers” is not a still life. It is a visual prayer.
A concentrated space of hope, memory, and inner sovereignty.