Woman with cigarette 1903

Here we have Picasso’s oil on canvas, 'Woman with Cigarette.' It’s got those blues and greens—brooding, thick, and earthy. You can almost feel him pushing the paint around, figuring out her form, stroke by stroke. I imagine Picasso hovering over the canvas, wrestling with each line, each shade. What was he thinking as he captured her like this? What was she thinking? The paint is laid on pretty thick. It looks like he kept going back, adding layers, scraping some off... The way he's painted her cigarette hand, it's both delicate and strong, full of feeling. Her expression is so ambiguous. There's a real conversation between artists going on here, a conversation that transcends time and space, each feeding off the other's energy. Painting, it’s just a way to keep that conversation going. It’s less about answers, more about keeping the questions alive.