Jug and Four Eggs 1967

Mary Fedden made this painting, Jug and Four Eggs, in 1967, probably with oil on canvas. Fedden’s got this light touch, you know? A way of simplifying shapes and colors, and it makes you feel like you could just step right into this simple scene. I love the way she plays with flatness. The brushstrokes are so visible, not trying to hide the fact that it’s paint on a surface, which I always appreciate. Look at the jug and how she's given it a sort of patterned base. And then the eggs are in this shallow bowl, each one a different color; white, brown, bluey-green. It’s a very limited palette, but somehow it's perfect. There’s a British artist called Vanessa Bell, who was painting similar still-life images many years previously. Bell was involved with the Bloomsbury Group, a collective of writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists. Perhaps Fedden saw her images in a gallery and was inspired to make her own, more simplified version. Anyway, it’s like they’re having a conversation across time. And, in the end, the beauty of art lies in these connections, these echoes, and the way an artist's vision can be so personal.