Covered Sugar Bowl c. 1940

Beverly Chichester made this watercolor painting of a covered sugar bowl. Just imagine the act of painting itself—the watercolor shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition to find this lustrous, glossy, deep blue. I can sympathize with Chichester, the quietude that must have been in her studio. What might she have been thinking as she looked at her subject and slowly built up layers of pigment? The thinness of the paint allows the whiteness of the paper to shine through. The vertical strokes catch the light and give shape to the bowl. The play of light is magical. Painters are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.