Large Vase with Flowers c. 1912

Odilon Redon made this painting, Large Vase with Flowers, with oil on canvas, and from the looks of things, he worked wet into wet. I love how the painting feels almost like a dream, with the vase and flowers emerging from a misty background of hazy color. You can almost see Redon building up the forms with small, soft strokes, blending and layering the paint to create this glowing effect. It's like he's conjuring the image from his imagination, rather than just copying what he sees. The paint handling is exquisite: thin washes of color, delicate touches that catch the light. Redon wasn't interested in rigid form, but rather in a sense of atmosphere and feeling. Artists are constantly bouncing ideas off of one another, across time, inspiring each other's creativity, and hopefully, we can embrace ambiguity, allowing for multiple readings.