Composition with Nasturtiums 1906

Olga Boznanska painted "Composition with Nasturtiums" with oil, and it feels like a snapshot of her process. The marks are so present. I’m especially drawn to the upper right corner, where warm yellows and oranges meet cooler blues and grays. Boznanska isn't trying to trick us with illusion. Instead, she lays down these confident strokes, almost like she’s constructing a puzzle. You can see the physicality of the paint; it’s not just color, it's matter, it's texture. The brushstrokes are direct, and the colors are mixed right there on the canvas. This reminds me of the work of Pierre Bonnard, who also used intimate domestic settings, with their ambiguous compositions, as a means to explore the act of painting itself. For both artists, the painting becomes a space of possibility, a space for color, light, and the pure joy of applying paint.