The Star 2020

Zoe Hawk made this painting, The Star, sometime in the 20th century, using oil paint to create a magical scene. The colors are so soft and dreamy, like a memory from a perfect summer night. I love how the paint isn't trying to hide itself, you can really see the hand of the artist in each brushstroke. There’s something about the texture of the paint that makes you want to reach out and touch it, especially the water being poured from the metal buckets: so luminous, so light. And then those stars in the night sky, echoed in the decoration on the pool itself - they are just little dashes of white. Hawk takes a simple gesture, a dot of paint, and turns it into something ethereal. It makes me think about how we can create these whole worlds from just a few marks, a few simple shapes. Looking at this, I'm reminded of the work of Pierre Bonnard, who could also capture these intimate moments with such a tender eye. This painting is less about telling you what to think and more about inviting you to dream along with it.