Chopping Bowl 1937

Here is Wellington Blewett's painting of a chopping bowl. The surface is built up with many careful strokes and rendered in warm shades of brown and a creamy off-white. I find myself thinking about Blewett imagining the scene. The light comes from above and casts soft shadows inside the empty vessel. There is a stillness, and something melancholy, too, about the scene. Perhaps Blewett was thinking about the passage of time, or how even the most mundane everyday objects can become beautiful when we really pay attention. I wonder if Blewett was also influenced by early still life painters like Jean-Siméon Chardin. The same kind of gentle observation, of quiet contemplation is there. It's as if Blewett is reminding us to find beauty in the simple, everyday things around us. Blewett invites us to pause, observe, and appreciate the quiet beauty that surrounds us, waiting to be discovered.