Glass Bowl, Ball and Bouquet

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on May 3, 2023 at 3:02pm

 

Curator’s Comments:

Glass Bowl, Ball and Bouquet came up randomly on the site, and I was happy to revisit your expertly crafted watercolor work. The pale background gives this still life arrangement ample breathing room for the viewer to appreciate the complex passages of reflective and semi-transparent color. I enjoy how the different surfaces of the flowers and glass are handled, and the varying ways they reveal the ambient light.  As first I interpreted the piece as a photorealistic painting, but with longer viewing I’m intrigued by some of the formal and aesthetic decisions that provide unanticipated shifts in the compositional weight.  For example, the cast shadows of each of the three objects are darker in value than one might imagine, and share the crisp edges of the forms they reflect. They also join an analogous violet color palette- serving to unify the different hues within the primary objects. I like the delicate arc of the leaf, which points me back to the open area on the left of the picture plane, and then back down to the bowl.  Whether this bend was observing reality, or making a compositional adjustment, it is a perspicacious choice.  Please do consider posting new work if you still visit the site. I see that this work was created many years ago, and I would like to see how your painting practice has continued.