Figure through flowers 1935

Grace Cossington Smith made this painting, Figure Through Flowers, with oil paint and a clear love for dabs of colour. The whole image feels like its made of mosaics; little coloured stones all pressed together. Looking closely, it's the paint that gets me going - you can almost feel Smith pushing it around the canvas. The strokes are small, deliberate, but not too precious. Take a look at the bunch of flowers at the front, the way she uses these flecks of green and white to build the leaves. See how they almost vibrate? It's like she's capturing not just what she sees, but how it feels to be looking, the energy of the light. This kind of broken colour thing reminds me of Bonnard, but Smith brings her own kind of clarity to it. Both artists show that paintings aren’t ever really finished, they are just these amazing pauses in an ongoing visual conversation.