The Window Blind 1921

Joseph DeCamp created The Window Blind, using oils to portray a figure beside a window, lost in thought. I imagine him in his studio, squinting at his subject, a young woman in a red robe. He's trying to catch the light as it filters through the blinds, creating this soft, hazy atmosphere. I can see DeCamp mixing his colors, trying to get just the right shade of red for the robe, a color that seems to glow from within. Look at the way he's captured the texture of the fabric, the way it drapes and folds around her body. It's all in the brushwork, the way he's layered the paint to create depth and dimension. I wonder if he was thinking of the old masters as he worked, of Rembrandt and his dramatic use of light and shadow. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time and space, learning from the past while pushing towards the future. Painting is a language that we all speak, and it's a language that's always evolving.