Spring 1905

Frances Macdonald made this decorative panel, "Spring," with watercolor and gold paint, and the translucence gives it a luminous quality. I love how she teases out the possibilities of a muted palette. The colours are not quite pastel, not quite muted. There's an uncertainty to the colours, a delicacy that feels just right, like spring itself, a time of budding potential and tentative growth. Look closely and you'll see each petal and leaf is precisely outlined, almost like stained glass. Each shape is carefully placed, creating a harmonious balance between positive and negative space. Macdonald echoes Beardsley and anticipates Klimt but ultimately, she has a vision all her own. Her work exists in a space of in-betweenness, where beauty and melancholy intertwine, reflecting the complexities of life.