Foxgloves growing 1929

Curator: Before us hangs Grace Cossington Smith’s oil on canvas, titled "Foxgloves Growing," painted in 1929. The artist, an Australian modernist, captures a close-up view of foxglove flowers. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: My immediate impression is its gentle, almost meditative quality. The pastel palette, especially the soft pinks and yellows, creates a harmonious yet understated composition. It's interesting how she fragments the light and form into almost mosaic-like touches. Curator: Right. Cossington Smith had a fascinating method, applying colour in small, deliberate strokes. This piece highlights her move towards capturing the subjective experience of light. Considering the period in which it was created, the artist pushed the boundaries of impressionism and navigated the advent of Australian modernism to create work that documents the artist's unique way of making. Editor: Absolutely. I agree there’s something intrinsically unique about how she renders light through pigment application. The brushstrokes, in many respects, function like individual tiles or facets, coalescing into something representative and yet abstract. Can you speak a little to how this work situates within Cossington Smith’s overall practice? Curator: It exemplifies her commitment to painting familiar, domestic scenes with a modernist lens. The foxgloves likely grew in her garden. Her choice of subject links to the Arts and Crafts movement's embrace of the everyday. There’s an engagement here in which domestic and artistic labor coincide, challenging historical conceptions of high art. Editor: The artist does not idealize the subject but presents its beauty through the simple arrangements of tone and form, flattening of the space—the overall composition directs my gaze into the work rather than outward. It speaks to her awareness of pictorial construction—creating structure rather than simply recording something observed. Curator: Very much so. This analysis illuminates her attention to structure and composition as vital aspects. Looking closer at "Foxgloves Growing" has expanded my understanding of the intersection of labor and intentional technique. Editor: Indeed! Examining her methods allows us to appreciate the nuanced and intellectual considerations through the deceptive and simplistic painting of flowerings.