Flannel flowers and gum leaves 1928

Grace Cossington Smith captured these flannel flowers and gum leaves with oil on canvas, and the process feels so present. It's like she's letting us peek into her studio. The way she's built up the surface, thick strokes layered upon each other, makes me think about the physicality of paint. You can almost feel the push and pull of the brush, the weight of the pigment. Take a look at those white petals—they're not just white, are they? There are touches of blues and greens, like the light is dancing across them, and it makes those flowers almost jump off the canvas. It reminds me of Bonnard, actually, that intimate sense of color and light. But Smith brings her own distinct vision, turning the everyday into something extraordinary. It's all about that ambiguity, that space where things aren't quite defined, and that's where the magic happens, right?