From the Plains I 1919

Georgia O'Keeffe made this painting, From the Plains I, with oil on canvas using soft, modulated colour. The painting gives me a feeling of something both expansive and intimate. There are layers and layers of blues and greens, flowing like an endless sky, but also the feeling of a secret, protected space. Look at the surface, how O’Keeffe blends the colours so smoothly, like airbrushing. It feels endless, like there are no sharp edges. It's like she's trying to capture the feeling of being inside something, maybe even inside herself. Then there is that little stripe of crimson at the top of the bottom curve; it acts as a punctuation, holding everything together. It’s the kind of detail that makes O’Keeffe so great, the way she can take something so simple and turn it into something so powerful. The way she paints reminds me of Hilma af Klint. I find myself considering art as a visual language that evolves through time.