Bella Donna 1939

Georgia O'Keeffe made Bella Donna by moving around the surface with brushes and a careful eye. I imagine her approaching the canvas, mixing her colours, and responding intuitively to the emerging forms. The colours are really subtle—mostly whites and creams with touches of pink, purple, yellow, and green. These hues give the flower a soft, almost ethereal quality, which I can totally relate to. There's a great sense of depth created through the delicate gradations of tone. The paint is applied thinly, allowing the colours to blend and merge seamlessly. O'Keeffe probably worked and reworked this flower, building up layers of colour and form to create something that feels both precise and organic. This painting really resonates with O'Keeffe's interest in the natural world. Her approach feels similar to that of other artists who seek to express the beauty and complexity of the natural world through abstraction. Ultimately, Bella Donna offers a really fresh perspective on the art of seeing and interpreting the world around us.