Sunflowers marks a reflective return to Noor Mahnun Anum’s early fascination with botanical drawing and still life, a practice that predates her formal training. Influenced by her youthful studies of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers and her own early works in pastel and watercolor, the painting pays homage to both personal and artistic beginnings. Here, Anum depicts Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia diversifolia), a prolific, often-overlooked plant that grows near her current studio. This choice grounds the work in her present while echoing the past, blending memory with observation.

Notably, Sunflowers incorporates both Schatten (shade) and Eigenschatten (self-cast shadow), reflecting Anum’s awareness of nuanced shadow terminology from her time studying in Germany. While she typically avoids Schatten, its inclusion here serves as a subtle, humorous nod to the inherent duality in the name “sunflowers”—a light-seeking flower inevitably accompanied by shadow. In this way, the painting gently bridges joy and introspection, routine and reverence, revisiting foundational motifs through a mature, self-aware lens.

Sunflowers functions as both a personal and artistic homage—to Van Gogh, to the still life genre, and to Anum’s own early explorations in drawing and observation. By rendering the often-overlooked Mexican sunflowers with care and precision, Anum elevates the ordinary, expressing a quiet reverence for the everyday. The clear glass vase and minimal backdrop underscore themes of clarity, memory, and presence. In revisiting botanical subjects, Anum bridges past and present, tracing the evolution of her practice from informal sketches to refined oil painting, and affirming the enduring resonance of simple forms and attentive looking.