In Bermuda 1939

Prudence Heward painted "In Bermuda" with oils, and right away you can see how she’s working with a push-pull between representation and abstraction. There's a real lushness to the paint handling – you get a sense of thick, juicy strokes laying down these almost cartoon-like forms, which feels deliberate. Notice the way she renders the trunk of that prominent plant in the foreground, with that unexpected purple hue. It’s a gutsy move, and it totally works, right? I mean, it's not trying to trick you into thinking it *is* a tree, but it captures the essence of one, somehow. And the colours are so vibrant, almost Fauvist, that the whole scene starts vibrating with energy. Heward reminds me a bit of Emily Carr, another Canadian painter who wasn't afraid to let the paint get thick and messy, but that purple! That’s all Heward.