Tulips in a White Vase 

Curator: Let’s consider this lively still life of tulips in a white vase, crafted with oil paint. Though undated, this work carries the distinct signature of Samuel Peploe. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Raw energy. The paint application, so thick and deliberate, feels more important than the actual tulips themselves. It is almost as if the weight and substance of the paint dictates the structure of the painting. Curator: Peploe's bold brushstrokes indeed define the composition. Yet it’s worth noting the social context; the early 20th-century Scottish Colourists like Peploe were profoundly influenced by French Impressionism and post-Impressionism. Editor: Precisely, and how that influence translates into materiality is key. Look at how he builds form with layer upon layer of paint. The very act of painting, the labour if you will, is laid bare for us to see, without any attempt to conceal the work and energy involved. Curator: And the democratization of the subject matter! Elevating domestic objects to the level of "high art", making everyday accessible and worthy of artistic exploration. Peploe democratizes taste through his representation. Editor: I'm less convinced it's about democratization. More that those forms are just convenient supports for pushing oil paint around the canvas in inventive ways. It all comes back to the physicality, doesn't it? How the weight, the viscosity, transforms through his hand and brush. Curator: Perhaps it is a synthesis of both - the act of elevating the material, to highlight the subject matter’s role. Either way, I see a vital moment in art history where process and the everyday blur. Editor: I agree there’s a blurring. A dissolving even, where subject gives way entirely to pure texture and the seductive pleasure of oil paint doing what it does best. Curator: It is clear Peploe's emphasis was placed both on what and how things are made - how brushstrokes form both an illusionistic image and also declare themselves, firmly rooted in process and moment. Editor: It is that focus on process, where the materials guide the hand, that always holds my gaze and pushes the boundaries of the painting further from expectation and closer to real life.