Carafe c. 1937

Janet Riza's "Carafe" is a watercolor painting on paper, and it's got this lovely, straightforward feel, like she just went for it. The whole thing is bathed in this transparent, almost candied pink, but it's the details that get me. Look at how she uses these dark, confident outlines to define the shape of the glass, almost like stained glass. It gives the carafe this cool, graphic edge, like a pop art print. You can almost feel the light catching on the facets of the glass. It makes me think about those still life paintings by Giorgio Morandi, where the everyday objects become these quiet, meditative forms. Like Morandi, Riza finds a kind of beauty in simplicity, in the way light interacts with a simple object. It's not about perfection; it's about capturing a feeling, a moment of seeing.