On a Meadow c. 1905

Moriz Melzer made this painting called 'On a Meadow' using watercolor and crayon. Look at the dreamy, idyllic figures basking in the grass. I can almost feel the sun on my skin looking at it. I wonder what it was like for Melzer making this. He probably had to shift between the granular touch of the crayon, and the cool slip of the watercolors, slowly building this scene through layers of colour and texture. There’s a lovely contrast between the bold green meadow and the tender hues of the figures, punctuated by the unexpected pink underpainting. This painting reminds me a little of Gauguin's Tahiti paintings. Think about how artists are always in conversation with one another across time, inspiring each other’s creativity and how painting is always a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty.