The Chinese Statuette 1929

Dorrit Black made "The Chinese Statuette" with oil paint. It's a scene made of quiet, earthy colours, holding a cluster of shapes and shadows. I imagine her starting with a rough sketch, then slowly building up the layers of paint, shifting things around until they felt just right. I wonder if she found herself in a kind of dance with the canvas, adding a touch of red here, a dab of brown there, and stepping back to see how it all came together? The paint is applied in fairly flat blocks of colour. It feels like she's searching for the essence of these objects: the jug, the apple, the statuette, each rendered as simple volumes in a muted palette. See how the statuette looks almost ghostly against the darker background, its form softened by the diffused light? Painters, like Dorrit Black, engage in an ongoing conversation, echoing and reinterpreting ideas across time. Ultimately, "The Chinese Statuette" is a record of the artist's looking and thinking, inviting us to bring our own interpretations to its stillness.