Pumpkin 2003

Nelson Shanks painted this pumpkin using oils, though we don't know exactly when. Look at the way Shanks blends those oranges and yellows, it's a smooth transition, as if he's trying to capture the very essence of "pumpkin-ness" itself, not just its surface. There's a real focus here on the physical qualities of the scene, the pumpkin sits on a painter's stool, so we understand this is a studio, a place of work, where the mundane can become art. I'm really drawn to the details in the pumpkin itself, the little bumps and imperfections. It's like Shanks is saying, "Hey, beauty isn't always perfect. It's in the quirks and the asymmetry." Shanks was a portrait painter, but this still life reminds me of the work of another American painter, William Harnett, who was painting everyday objects back in the 19th century. But where Harnett focused on deception, making the painted object seem very real, here Shanks is embracing the real, and making it beautiful. In the end, it's all about how we choose to see the world, right?