Ceres 1925

Samuel Peploe created "Ceres" with paint on canvas. The colours are singing, aren't they? Fresh and optimistic, yet somehow grounding, like a deep breath of sea air. The surface is built up with confident, square brushstrokes, each one a little decision, a little push and pull. Look at the way the warm roofs meet the cool blues of the sky. It's all about relationships and colour. These colours vibrate and feel like the moment is captured. This type of artmaking is a process – of seeing and responding. The trees are thick and juicy, the walls are chalky, the paint is applied wet into wet to create a unified image. The textures feel alive, the brushmarks like breathing. It reminds me of a slightly earlier painter, someone like Gustave Courbet, with that same sense of a direct, bodily encounter with the world and a love of what paint can do. Ultimately, it's a painting that celebrates the act of seeing, feeling, and painting all at once.