Landscape with flowering peach 1932

Here's an oil painting with a flowering peach tree, made by Grace Cossington Smith. This peachy painting feels like a conversation between the artist and her garden. I can imagine her, brush in hand, really looking at those pale pink petals and the way they catch the light. It’s so easy, as a painter, to fall into habits of seeing, but Smith seems to have pushed against that, finding a new way to describe what’s in front of her. There’s something both awkward and bold about her approach. The color is built up in these chunky, almost square-like strokes, like she's laying tiles down in mosaic. And you can see how the color of the flowering peach is echoed in the sky, tying everything together. It's like she's trying to capture not just the look of the landscape, but the feeling of being there, surrounded by all that spring energy. Artists like Smith make me want to look harder, and with more joy and curiosity.