Lamp c. 1937

Gladys C. Parker made this lamp painting on paper, and the delicate wash of golden hues really gets me thinking about light and shadow. I can almost see her, can't you, bent over the page, squinting at the lamp, trying to capture the way the light bounces off its curves? I imagine Gladys might have been interested in how something as simple as an everyday object, a lamp, can become something extraordinary through the act of painting. I love how she’s handled the texture. It's thin and watery but still manages to give a sense of the lamp's form. It reminds me a little of Morandi, how he could make bottles and jars so poetic. Painters are always in conversation with each other. It's like we're all in this big, messy studio, tossing ideas around, trying things out, and learning from each other's successes and failures. Painting is a form of embodied expression, and there are endless interpretations, aren't there?