Mulleins and Rocks 1936

Prudence Heward made 'Mulleins and Rocks' with oil on canvas at an unknown date, and it feels like she's really feeling the landscape as she paints. The surface is built up with these confident strokes, almost like laying bricks. The paint is thick and juicy, and I can imagine her really pushing it around with her brush. Look at the way she models those rocks, how she uses the color to give them weight and form. It's not about being exact, it’s more about the sensation of rocks, the cool greys and blues playing against the warmer browns. Then, those vertical mulleins, standing tall and proud, breaking up the horizontal flow. The colours aren't blended smoothly; you get this real sense of how each mark contributes to the whole. The way she's unafraid of those simplified shapes reminds me a little of Milton Avery. It's like she's asking us to slow down and really look, not just at what's there, but at how it feels to be there.