Still life with pineapple and butterfly 2008

Mary Fedden made this painting called Still Life with Pineapple and Butterfly with paint, probably in her studio, sometime during her career. It’s so great! You can see her process in the almost childlike directness and joyful colour combinations. I love the confident way Fedden lays down the paint, like the flat planes of colour of the stylised landscape outside the window, where a few white blocks become a farm. The butterfly is just a few quick strokes, but so full of life. Look at the brushstrokes on the pineapple, how they follow the form. It looks almost abstract, like a geometric pattern, but it still manages to give you the feeling of a pineapple. I also like that she doesn’t worry about perfectly blending colours, so you get these interesting juxtapositions. Someone like Milton Avery comes to mind, someone else who let their work be itself. Paintings like this remind us that art is an ongoing conversation, full of curiosity, and it doesn’t have to be so serious all the time.