Wall Paper c. 1936

Charlotte Angus created "Wall Paper" with paint on paper. The colors are earthy--browns, mauves, pale yellows. I imagine Angus, brush in hand, building the image step by step, layering and adjusting. I’m struck by the way the artist captured a sense of stillness and movement simultaneously, like the reflections on the water's surface or the birds on the wing. Was Angus thinking about a particular place or memory? Perhaps she was working from a design, improvising with color and texture as she went? The paint looks thin, almost translucent, which gives the whole image an airy quality. This reminds me of some 19th-century landscape paintings but with a unique sensibility and color palette. Artists are always in conversation with one another across time, riffing and expanding upon the ideas of their predecessors. Like a good conversation, painting is about embracing ambiguity, opening up multiple possibilities.