Still Life 1949

This still life is by Gregoire Boonzaier. I imagine him using pastels, building up the image with soft, smudged marks. It feels intuitive, like he's feeling his way through the arrangement. I sympathize with Boonzaier, setting up this scene and deciding what to include. There’s a bowl overflowing with fruit next to earthenware jugs on a patterned cloth. There's something intimate about the scene, like he might have painted it in his own kitchen! I wonder what he was thinking about as he chose these objects? Was he thinking about Cezanne? Look at how the brown pastel outlines each shape, giving the objects weight and form. The muted color palette creates a soft, hazy atmosphere. It's a gentle dance of mark-making and seeing. I can imagine Boonzaier experimenting and responding to the work of other painters, adding his own chapter to this never-ending visual conversation.