Jug and Yellow Fruit 1911

Here is a still life by Samuel Peploe in which cool blues and greens meet warmer yellows and whites, conjuring up a simple domestic scene. I imagine Peploe working alla prima, wet on wet, building up the composition in layers and letting the painting emerge through trial, error, and intuition. I really feel for this artist, I know what it’s like to have a vision and the frustration that comes when trying to execute it on canvas. The beauty of paint is the rich surface, its texture, the physical evidence of a loaded brush dragged across the canvas! Here, a small dab of red sits at the top of the jug—it’s a tiny gesture, but it's full of intention. I think that Peploe was trying to capture something about the objects in front of him, and also about painting itself. This piece shows how artists are in dialogue, learning from each other across time, each one inspiring the next. The embodied expression allows for multiple readings, making painting a constantly evolving language.