A visitor the artist studio commented on the painting in progress.“To me this is a modern-day Monet. It reminds me of springtime in a French country estate. And yes, we’ve been there.”
Hargrove admitted that he had not. But his family still lives in an Italian villa near the Mediterranean Sea, with bountiful flowerbeds complementing the family’s citrus groves. “The flowers bloom in a riot of color,” he said, “and they are what inspired this painting. Of course, I chose to paint this scene using the impressionistic technique.