Study for "Lemon" c. 1975

Leo Dee made this drawing, "Study for Lemon", with what looks like colored pencils on paper. The palette is reduced, just variations on yellow, grey and a touch of blue. It's a modest and humble approach, like he's feeling his way into the subject. I love the way the color is built up with tiny strokes of the pencil, especially in the lemon itself. You can almost feel the waxy texture of the fruit and the cool light bouncing off its surface. Notice, too, the way the shadow is rendered with short, controlled strokes – it gives the lemon a grounded, almost weighty feel. The blue blocks in the corner feel like color tests, little experiments that didn’t quite make it into the main act. This piece reminds me of Agnes Martin’s quiet dedication to line and form. Like Martin, Dee invites us to slow down, to really see the world around us, and to appreciate the beauty in the simplest of things. Art, after all, is an ongoing conversation – a game of visual telephone passed down through generations. It’s never really finished, just constantly reinterpreted.