Fruit in the Grass 1939

Prudence Heward made "Fruit in the Grass" using oil paint, and I just love the way she wasn't afraid to dive into the undergrowth. The surface has this great slightly glossy sheen, and the paint handling is really direct. Take the grapes over on the left, they are built up from all these tiny dabs of color, from a pale, chalky green to something almost blue. There is a real sensitivity to the light playing across the different surfaces. It really makes you think about the physicality of painting, the way the artist has manipulated the oil paint to create these distinct forms. Look at the peach, and how the light catches its rounded surface, contrasted with the way the leaves are a flatter, less modeled green. Heward’s painting reminds me a little of Emily Carr's landscapes, that same almost mystical vision of the natural world. There is a dialogue going on between artists all the time, like a big, ongoing conversation.