Shop in Autumn 1981

Maria Bozoky made this watercolour, Shop in Autumn, and it’s so easy to see that it was made with love and care, with an economy of line, and a juicy palette of colour. There's a real sense of place here, but it's not about precise representation. It's more about the feeling of a memory. The colours are layered and blended in a way that feels both immediate and considered. Like if you look closely at the building on the right, how she has used transparent layers of purple and pink which give it this radiant glow that feels almost dreamlike. The marks are confident and direct, the surface alive. The painting looks like it was done quickly, but I’m sure it wasn’t, it takes so much work to make something look this effortless. It reminds me of some of the looser, more intuitive work by Milton Avery, also working with watercolour. These are both artists who aren't afraid to let the paint do its thing and who embrace the beauty of imperfection. It is a piece which celebrates that painting can be about play, exploration, and above all feeling.