The Artist's Wife Sewing 1923

Frederick Carl Friseke made this painting, The Artist’s Wife Sewing, with oil on canvas. You can feel the way his brush moved, soft and blended. The whole painting is built from subtle pinks and reds, and a harmony of delicate marks. I can imagine the act of painting it: he steps back, squints, and then he dabs another colour onto the canvas. It's like a conversation between the artist and the painting, each mark responding to the one before. There is an intimacy and intensity that is palpable when you make a painting, isn’t there? Look at the way he painted the flowers on her dress, it's just pure feeling, an expression of color that explodes into a bouquet. It reminds me of Bonnard’s domestic interiors. There is a joy and a beauty here, a testament to the ongoing dialogue artists have with one another across time. A process that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty.