Sugar Bowl c. 1936

Janet Riza made this watercolor of a sugar bowl, and the paper just glows! I can just imagine Riza, sitting at her table, carefully mixing her blues to get just the right shade for that glass, watching the light change as she works. It's not just about copying what she sees, but feeling it, trying to get inside that blue. What does it feel like to be blue? How can you get that blue onto the page? I bet she layered the color with many glazes. The beauty of watercolor is its translucency, it invites the eye in, and it is easy to make changes. See how the hard edges of the sugar bowl contrast with the soft transparency of the watercolor paint? It is a simple, but elegant painting of a useful object. It reminds me of Morandi’s bottles. Each one is a unique expression of the artist’s vision, but also part of a bigger conversation that painters have been having for centuries. It’s like they’re all in a big studio together, shouting ideas back and forth across time.