Zinnias and a Blue Dish with Lemons 1924

Charles Demuth made this watercolour painting of Zinnias and a Blue Dish with Lemons, using soft, transparent colours, and broken planes, that suggest a delicate light. It's all about capturing the fleeting beauty of everyday life, through the simple act of arranging objects. I think Demuth really plays with the idea of seeing – you know, how we perceive things, how we break them down into shapes and colours. Look at the way the light filters through the glass vase, how it refracts and distorts the stems of the flowers. It's like he's showing us the world not as it is, but as we see it. I’m reminded of Cezanne and his still-lives. Both artists make use of a muted, tonal palette, and were interested in depicting the world in a way that invites us to slow down and really look at it, appreciating the beauty in the everyday. It's like they're saying, ‘Hey, art doesn't have to be about grand gestures, it can be about the quiet moments too.’