The Day Dream 1920

In this painting by John William Godward, we see a woman reclining, probably made with oil on canvas. It's so classical, so tight, so smooth! I feel like I could fall into that painting. I bet the artist was in a total state of flow – like that woman. Look how the folds in her dress cascade! The pleats look like they could be made from light itself. I wonder what he was thinking as he made it? Maybe he was just trying to get lost in the sheer visuality of it all, surrendering to the pull of beauty. I can imagine him standing back, squinting, adjusting the fall of fabric with a brushstroke here and there. There is a world of difference between this and how I work. I am more into clunky and intuitive mark-making, and it makes me wonder what we could have taught each other if we had met. All artists are connected. We are all just bouncing ideas off each other across time and space, trying to figure out how to make sense of the world through color and form.