Woman Lying Down with Her Arms Raised 1907

'Woman Lying Down with Her Arms Raised' by Jules Pascin is a nude painted with soft, muted tones. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, coaxing the figure into being. I wonder what Pascin was thinking, what he felt as he built up those layers of paint? Was he battling with it, or did the painting flow out of him? The paint's not too thick, not too thin; it allows the forms to softly emerge. Look at how he painted the shadows under her arms. It’s a quick, confident stroke that suggests so much with so little. It's like he’s whispering secrets about form and light. Painters are all in conversation with each other, across time and space, and Pascin surely was looking at other artists. It’s all one big, messy, beautiful conversation, inspiring us to see and feel the world in new ways. Each stroke, each color choice, is part of a story that never really ends.