Femme au béret orange et au col de fourrure 1937

Here's a portrait of a woman with an orange beret and fur collar, made by Pablo Picasso with paint on canvas. Look at the way Picasso has laid down those strokes, thick and juicy, almost like he’s sculpting with the paint itself. I wonder what it was like for him, staring at his subject, probably his muse, and wrestling with how to capture her essence on canvas. The push and pull of color and line, the way that orange beret just pops against the pale blue background – you can feel the energy and the conversation that Picasso was having with the painting as it came into being. The way he’s divided the face, dark and light, is pure Picasso. He’s not just showing us what she looks like, but maybe how he feels, or how she reveals herself to him. I see echoes of Matisse in that bold use of color. It's like artists are always in dialogue, riffing off each other, pushing boundaries, and showing us new ways to see. Ultimately, the act of painting is a kind of embodied expression, always open to new ideas, inspiration, and interpretation.