Garden 

John Michael Carter painted this piece, 'Garden', using a vibrant impasto technique. The texture is immediately striking; the paint is applied so thickly that it creates a palpable sense of depth and movement. The composition, though seemingly casual, reveals a careful balance. Carter uses the bright yellow flowers as focal points, guiding our eyes around the canvas. The contrast between the rough texture of the surrounding foliage and the smooth depiction of the woman's skin invites a semiotic reading. The rough and the smooth can be seen as signifiers for the natural world versus the cultivated human form. This tension, reflected in the painting's materiality, can destabilize any easy separation between nature and culture. Note how Carter's choice of colours and textures works together to create a dynamic interplay between form and content. The painting invites us to question how such elements shape not only our aesthetic experience but also our broader understanding of nature, artifice, and the act of seeing itself.