new painting

here is a new painting that i still don't quite know how to evaluate. here's a portion of what i wrote in my journal:
it's more decorative. clearly finished. clean. not layered, but direct. there is tension b/w vague sense of representation and raw materiality of medium and straightforwardness of techniques. seems to reference plant life and art nouveau stylization. can easily see this as a stained glass piece b/c black foundation still visible b/w marks, separating them. does not appear to describe depth -- the black showing through and "once over" painting style keeps it flat. but there is subtle underlying violence that's hard to pinpoint. it's not b/c it's over-the-top or ironically beautiful. it's too understated for that even though worked. colors are not garish even though metallics and interference colors were used. it's modest but it's still curious. it's all so much about directness of marks and letting paint swirl and move on it's own. it's gentle, but something prevents it from being strictly decorative. my personal response to the material of paint and the task set to myself of describing pictorially my relationship with religion and the natural world. the way i've used paint makes this work as much about the medium of paint as it is about nature. the work is elegiac for a changing and disappearing nature as much as a celebration of it. the paint is nature itself. without sadness.