Reclining Girl on a Pillow 1910

Egon Schiele made this painting of a reclining girl on paper, probably in his studio, we can only imagine the many drawings made before this ‘final’ version. I love to think about that journey. Look at those colors, the way the red bleeds into the blue of her dress. It's all feeling, right? I imagine Schiele pacing around, those angular arms flying around, before making these marks with total commitment. It makes me think about my own studio practice, how a painting comes into being through trial, error, and maybe some intuition. Those hands, so expressive. Is she reaching out, or pushing away? Or is she uncomfortable, maybe she's melancholic? Artists are always in conversation with each other across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting is an ongoing conversation, a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity and multiple meanings. It's never just one thing.