Interior of the Studio 1937

Mark Tobey made this painting, Interior of the Studio, and wow, does it look like it came into being through a beautiful struggle. It's an interior scene washed in shades of red, rust, and the faintest hint of blue sky glimpsed through a window. I can imagine Tobey circling around the canvas, adding layer upon layer, letting the painting shift and emerge. I feel like I'm in there with him, trying to make sense of it all. The lines are scribbled, almost like thoughts jotted down, and the surfaces are built up with thin washes of paint. There’s a real sense of light. Look at the way he's rendered the objects within the studio: a vase, a cup, a flower. It’s as if he’s not just painting what he sees, but also what he feels, the essence of those objects. It reminds me of other painters, like Forrest Bess or Myron Stout, who were on their own wavelength, inspired by everything from calligraphy to spiritualism, folding it all into their work. I think artists are always in conversation, inspiring each other across time. It’s never a fixed thing.