Pa. German Pie Plate 1937

Eugene Shellady made this Pa. German Pie Plate, probably with watercolour, and probably around 1937. It’s got this folk art quality, a real sense of directness in the way the artist has approached the image. The palette is restrained: warm browns and greens set against a pale yellow background. Look at how he's rendered the figures, they're flat but they have a charm. The lines are a little wobbly which gives it a hand-made feel. I’m drawn to the swirling floral motifs that frame the central couple. It's like he’s setting the scene, creating a little world within the plate. I like the way that the paint is applied in thin washes, almost transparent in places. It reminds me a little of some of Redon’s more whimsical works, though perhaps that’s just my imagination running wild! It shows us the conversational nature of art, and how artists can speak to each other across time and space, even through something as simple as a painted pie plate.