Still Life with Lemons 1914

Henri Matisse made this painting, Still Life with Lemons, with oil on canvas. You can see his brushstrokes, like long dashes of color, building up the forms. The lemons are sunny yellow and sitting in a blue bowl. I can imagine Matisse setting up this scene in his studio, maybe arranging the lemons just so. He probably stepped back, squinted, and then started laying down the paint, one color at a time. What I love is how he's not trying to trick you into thinking it's real; it's paint, pure and simple. The book titled "Tapis" in the picture is a perfect example of this. It feels like he's having a conversation with other painters through time, riffing on ideas about color and space and how we see the world. Painting is like that. It's not about getting it "right," but about exploring and pushing and seeing what happens.