Still life with lemon and oranges 1936

"Still Life with Lemon and Oranges," by Pablo Picasso, is, to me, a little puzzle made of shapes and colours. Look at how Picasso builds up the image, not with realistic details, but with flat planes of colour, almost like paper cut-outs layered on top of each other. The oranges pop with their juicy colour, next to the bottle outlined in dark green. He builds the painting up from simple, childlike forms, and the dark outlines help to separate each shape from the other. I love the thick brushstrokes on the tabletop, a deep earthy red that feels almost tactile. The shadows are not just grey, but tinged with a lilac that gives the whole scene a dreamlike quality. He's not just showing us what's there, but also giving us a way to feel it. It puts me in mind of the earlier still lifes by Cezanne, but with that added kick of cubism that makes it all Picasso. Art isn’t about getting it ‘right’ it’s about that little space of imagination that he opens for us.