“The Hopeful Descent” Diptych includes two oil and acrylic paintings on gallery-wrapped canvas—one 20×20” and the other 18×24”. These pieces became an exploration of contrast and emotion—where softness meets intensity, and quiet beauty lives right alongside bold, expressive marks.

I was inspired by a photo I took in the Kyoto Botanical Gardens, where fallen flowers rested on the forest floor, luscious in their decay, still full of life, and undeniably beautiful. That moment stayed with me.

I didn’t begin with a clear vision. I let the colors lead me. The deep blacks and soft pinks, vibrant yellows—the way they push and pull against each other—turned into a kind of conversation between strength and vulnerability. There’s movement here, tension and harmony at once.

Painting these felt like giving shape to something unspoken, something felt more than understood. I followed my instinct, let the work unfold moment by moment, and in the end, it surprised me.

These are two paintings in a collection of 4 (made from two diptychs). To view the collection together, you can select the fourth image, and view the other paintings and more information here: https://braighlee.com/abstract-realism/a-path-forward