The Graveyard 1958

Mary Fedden painted this graveyard scene in 1958, rendering her scene with expressive marks in a restricted palette of blues, purples, grays and greens. I imagine her building up the scene with loose brushstrokes, each dab of paint a decision, a shift, a correction. There's a certain sadness to this painting but also a kind of reverie. What was she thinking as she created this image? The layering creates a kind of fog or mist. You can almost feel the cool, damp air and the stillness of the place. The crosses and gravestones are simplified, reduced to their essential forms. Look at the way the light hits the top of the large tombstone on the left – the paint is applied in a thick impasto, giving it a sculptural quality. It’s amazing how she distills a sense of place and memory with such simple means, like a conversation between painters. I like to think that, in some way, we are all working in a similar graveyard, but in the end are hopefully adding something alive to it.