Chintz c. 1938

Henry Meyers painted this watercolor and graphite work, Chintz, on paper. I’m trying to imagine the artist hovering over it, coaxing the paper, pushing and pulling the image into being, a garden almost blooming on the page, the pinks and greens breathing. The flowers are so sweet, but they are interspersed with these unusual floating shapes. What was Meyers thinking about as they were painting these forms? Was it just the simple, delicate pleasure of rendering the natural world, or were they trying to get at something deeper, more mysterious? I mean, look at the tension between that background, which seems to represent the fabric on which the chintz is printed and the chintz itself. Painters are always in conversation, you know, across time, inspiring each other, riffing off of each other’s ideas. We each bring our own experiences to the canvas and hope it touches someone else.