Table with Flowers 1930

Arthur Beecher Carles made this painting, Table with Flowers, with oil on canvas using a dynamic array of strokes, a symphony of browns, greens, blues, and reds. I imagine Carles approached the canvas with an energetic, almost frantic rhythm, pushing and pulling at the paint until a world emerged. There's this sense of searching, of trying to capture something elusive about form. The thick daubs of color seem to vibrate with a life of their own. It makes me think of other painters who wrestled with representation and abstraction, like Marsden Hartley, or even Cézanne. They're all part of this ongoing conversation, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. Carles is inviting us to see not just the objects, but the very act of seeing itself. It's like he’s saying, “Look at the world, but also, look at how you look!”