Nude Series VIII 1917

Georgia O’Keeffe made this dreamy blue and red figure using watercolor on paper. It’s like she started with a feeling, a color, maybe even just a wet brush, and then let the nude emerge. I’ve been there, chasing a form that feels like it’s already there, just waiting to be revealed. Look at the watery blues, how they pool and bleed into each other. And the red on the neck, almost like a burst of heat, a flushed feeling. Was O’Keefe thinking about the body or was she just in love with the process? Maybe both. I think about her other paintings: those bones against the sky and how she lets the colors breathe, always looking for the sweet spot between control and letting go. This feels like that same spirit, a close relative. It's all part of the same conversation, the one all painters have with each other, across time. It's a reminder that painting is never just one thing. It's always a question, a possibility, a way of seeing.