The Charmer 1911

John William Waterhouse painted this image of a woman, a lyre and some fish, probably sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. I can only imagine what it must have felt like, painting a scene that is both so still and so full of life. I look at her face, her careful hands on the strings, and I imagine her totally absorbed in the music, lost in the act of creating sound. You can see that Waterhouse added touches of brighter color in her dress, little notes of gold in the blue, and the way she contrasts with the dark brown landscape. The way she looks in contrast to the fish is quite something. Each brushstroke feels like a deliberate choice, a balance between control and surrender to the moment. As painters, we’re all in conversation with each other, drawing inspiration from the past while forging our own paths forward. Ultimately, painting is about embracing ambiguity and trusting that meaning will emerge through the act of creation itself.