O Mamoeiro 1925

Tarsila do Amaral made this painting, O Mamoeiro, with oil on canvas and it’s got this vibrant, playful vibe. You can see the colours are laid down in these clean, distinct areas. It's like she's building up a world, block by block, with each colour doing its own thing but also playing nice with its neighbours. I'm really drawn to how solid everything feels; the colours are so deliberately placed, there's a real sense of the physical world being rendered here, but with a twist. Those big, smooth hills, like green bowling balls, set against the flat blue of the sky - it's all so carefully constructed, but still feels loose and free. Look at the bridge, how it cuts across the scene, that repetition of the lines. This reminds me of Léger, that machine-age sensibility, but with so much warmth. What a world.