Yellow Butterfly 2008

Mary Fedden made this painting, ‘Yellow Butterfly’, using oil on canvas. You can really see her process in this painting. The brushstrokes are confident, playful even, and the colors—muted greens, yellows, and lavenders—create a calm, domestic kind of atmosphere. The painting’s surface has a tactile quality, and the way Fedden layers the paint gives the work a kind of depth and weight. There's a real push-pull between the flatness of the picture plane and the illusion of three-dimensionality, which is a classic painting problem. Look at the way the light falls on the lemon, for instance. It's not quite right, but somehow it works perfectly. It’s the kind of awkwardness that gives the painting its charm. Fedden’s work always reminds me of other great British painters like Vanessa Bell. Like Bell, Fedden embraced the idea of art as an ongoing conversation, and her paintings invite us to join in, to bring our own interpretations and experiences to the table.