Irises in a white flower-vase 1920

Tadeusz Makowski captured these "Irises in a White Flower-Vase" with visible brushstrokes of pink, lilac, and pale green. Imagine him working, maybe in a sun-drenched studio, squinting at the flowers. They become a haze of purples, pinks, and those grassy greens shooting upwards like fireworks. The paint is applied with a soft touch, almost caressing the canvas to conjure the irises and capture a fleeting moment of beauty. The floral decoration on the vase look as if they have been dabbed on, like an afterthought. The irises feel almost weightless, but there's a grounded-ness to them, too, in the way Makowski plants them firmly on a surface of pink and grey. He makes me think about Morandi, and those simplified shapes and forms of everyday objects. Painting is like that, right? You find yourself in conversation with all these other artists, across time. Each painting, a stepping stone, a thought in progress. It's never really finished, just left.