Awnings, Avenue Matignon 1950

Ellsworth Kelly made this little painting of awnings, avenue Matignon, with paint on paper. I can really imagine him seeing the row of shops and how the canopies rhythmically cut the light coming down on the street. He probably chose the vertical format to emphasize the cut of light, right? I wonder if he used masking tape to define the edges of the shapes or maybe just a very steady hand and a small brush. The blue is so flat, it looks like it’s been printed. That blue… it's a total summer blue, almost like a Mondrian but without the black lines. What would it be like to be him, deciding how much blue and how much white, each one different from the next, like variations on a theme, seeing the world as a series of shapes, and colors, each one influencing the other? Painters like Kelly keep the conversation going, teaching us to see the world differently through shape, colour and light.