Where the Quiet Things Guard

9X12 Inch Original mixed media oil painting on gallery wrapped canvas.  Ready to hang.

In the hush of fading bloom, a mantis stands watch, small, green, and holy. Around her, dried petals curl inward like secrets kept too long. Stems lean together like they once held weight, and still remember how. The color is soft chaos: bruised sunset, worn velvet, the last breath of a garden.

But the mantis doesn’t mourn. She guards.

This is a piece about stillness with a purpose. Not hiding: holding. The kind of presence that doesn’t need to bloom to be beautiful. Part of the “Where the Quiet Things” series, it honors the quiet protectors. The sacred watchers. The ones who know healing is fragile, and choose to stay anyway.