Illustration for V. Voiculescu's "Last Shakespearean Sonnets" 1982

Margareta Sterian created this illustration for V. Voiculescu's "Last Shakespearean Sonnets" using watercolor. The painting is full of marks, shifting and emerging with each stroke of the brush. I can almost feel Sterian standing there, brush in hand, thinking hard, maybe even mumbling to herself. It's like she’s building something from the ground up with those reds and yellows. The paint looks thin and washy, but the colors still vibrate. The landscape feels alive, the colors are like emotional weather – sunny yellows giving way to moody blues, and the intense reds hinting at drama. Look closely at the bottom. See those scratchy white lines? They feel like secrets whispered onto the surface. Artists like Sterian, and even Shakespeare for that matter, are constantly chatting across time. We get to eavesdrop and bring our own meanings to the mix. It’s an ongoing conversation that never really ends.