Girl and Three Coffee Cups 1957

Richard Diebenkorn made this painting, Girl and Three Coffee Cups, using oil on canvas. He worked from life, I mean, you can tell by the way the girl is caught in this mid-action pour. It’s not perfect, it's just real. I love the surface of this painting. It feels both deliberate and accidental, like a dance between intention and chance. There’s a particular spot, right on the edge of the table, where the white paint drips down like a little waterfall. This one small area feels like a microcosm of the whole painting, it suggests movement and energy, like Diebenkorn was working quickly and intuitively, letting the paint do its thing. The colors, muted and harmonious, create a sense of quiet contemplation, just like a chill Sunday morning vibe. Diebenkorn’s work reminds me a little of Fairfield Porter, another painter who found beauty in everyday scenes. But Diebenkorn brings his own sense of abstraction to the table, or rather, to the canvas. Ultimately, this painting reminds us that art is a conversation, a back-and-forth between artists across time.