Geranium 1930

Karl Knaths made this painting, Geranium, with crayon on paper. Look how he's built up the image from many small marks, like mosaic tiles, especially in the background. I can imagine him working on this, maybe in his studio, trying to capture the way the light falls on the leaves and petals. He must have been staring at those geraniums for a long time. Knaths uses a gentle, scumbled texture. The way the blue dots vibrate against the red of the plant pots and the green of the leaves is very exciting. The lines aren't trying to be realistic; instead, they’re about feeling and rhythm, and remind me of Milton Avery’s quiet observations of nature. Painting is about seeing and feeling, isn’t it? It's about finding your own way to express what you see and how it makes you feel. It’s like a conversation, and we’re all just adding our voices to it.