O Mamoeiro 1925

Tarsila do Amaral painted 'O Mamoeiro' with oil on canvas, and right away I’m thinking about how the painting came into being, a process of layering and arranging until it snapped into place. Looking at the bridge—the straight lines, the people crossing—it makes me wonder what Amaral was thinking about while she was making it. I see her arranging the shapes and colors, pushing them around to create a sense of depth and movement. I wonder if she was thinking of other painters who had come before her. I bet she was! Painters are always in conversation, picking up ideas and passing them on. But this isn’t just about ideas. It’s about the way paint feels, the way it moves across the canvas. What I like about the way the elements are arranged is that it holds a kind of ambiguity, an invitation to create your own reading.