Nature Morte 1922

María Blanchard made this still life painting with oil paint, building form with muted greys, browns, and greens. You can see how the painting might have come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Blanchard, imagining what it might have been like to create the piece. She was probably considering the material aspects of painting, such as texture, color, and surface. The paint is applied thinly with visible brushstrokes. Take the line around the carafe for example: that jagged dark line communicates a feeling of enclosure. Blanchard was part of a wide-ranging conversation with other painters. It is a conversation that crosses time, inspiring our creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations and meanings.