Still Life with Ceramics ` 1979

Petros Malayan made this still life with ceramics, sometime during his lifetime using watercolor. Just look at the way he has rendered the objects in an almost childlike manner. It feels like he is discovering the composition as he goes, moving things around, adding and subtracting. I like the dark palette, and how it seems to have been applied quite wet. You can almost see him there in his studio, squinting at the objects, trying to figure out what they are doing. I imagine he was interested in the relationships between the shapes. I wonder, what was he thinking when he decided to add the white lines? It seems like a playful touch. Painting is a conversation, isn't it? Artists, dead and alive, all talking to each other, bouncing ideas off each other, and getting inspired.