Gumball II 1973

Charles Bell painted 'Gumball II', though the exact date remains elusive. He took an everyday object, a gumball machine, and elevated it to a monumental scale. I love how he focuses on the glass. It’s not just a container; it's a lens, distorting and refracting light, blurring the boundary between the real and the represented. He’s using paint to conjure the very essence of glass, its slickness, its transparency, and its capacity to bend reality. The gumballs themselves, each a perfect sphere of concentrated color, are like tiny paintings within the painting, reflecting the light in a myriad of ways. Zoom in on the reflections of light on the glass, you can almost feel the smooth coolness of the surface. His photorealist style reminds me a little of Gerhard Richter, who also walked the line between representation and abstraction. Bell invites us to slow down, to look closely, and to find beauty in the mundane.