Open Window 1919

Grace Cossington Smith, whoever she was, painted this scene of a woman sewing, with an open window, obviously, probably in oils. Just imagine the movement of her hands as she worked, putting down those dabs of color—browns, yellows, and greens—building up the scene, stroke by stroke. I can almost feel the quiet of the room, the focus of the woman as she sews, maybe lost in her thoughts, the way light filters through the trees outside the window. The paint is applied pretty thickly. You can see and feel the surface of the canvas. I wonder if Cossington Smith felt a connection between her own act of creation and the woman’s sewing? Like, both are acts of making, of bringing something new into the world. And that open window—it’s like an invitation, a reminder that there’s a whole world outside, waiting to be explored, transformed.