Energy Apples 1980

Audrey Flack made this painting, Energy Apples, at an unknown date using what looks like airbrush and a lot of juicy color. The combination of painting and airbrush creates a smooth, almost hyperreal surface that is so even, you could ice a cake with it. The palette is bright and saturated, and the colours are blended seamlessly. But if you look closely, you can see the different colors within each apple, each orange, each lemon. There’s a real care taken to build up the forms, the colors and to create these subtle shifts from light to dark. Notice how the surface of the fruit almost glows. It brings to mind other hyperrealist painters like Chuck Close, but with a playful, almost Pop Art sensibility. Ultimately it reminds me how art is about seeing, and how the way we see affects how we feel. There’s an optimistic energy here, an invitation to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. It shows how a humble subject can be transformed into something extraordinary, offering new ways of experiencing the world.