Still Life 1906 - 1910

Karl Isakson built this still life of flowers and fruit out of oil paint. The brushwork is quite gestural, as you can see in the movement of color that makes up the background and the tabletop. Look at the way he loaded up his brush with paint! You can really see that the artist has built the image through layers of marks. He has used a muted palette of greens, browns, and oranges. Imagine the painter shifting things around, trying out different compositional arrangements of flowers, fruit, and bowls. There is something so intimate about this painting, a kind of vulnerability in the artist’s willingness to let us see the traces of his process. The painting feels like a conversation, and Isakson's work is a kind of response to other still-life painters before and during his time. Artists learn from each other, inspire each other. By engaging in this silent dialogue, Isakson creates a personal interpretation of a traditional subject matter.