Still Life Flowers in Vase 1913

Maggie Laubser made this painting, 'Still Life Flowers in Vase,' with oil on canvas, and the brushstrokes are so present you can almost feel the give and take of the paint itself. Imagine Laubser, wrestling with those blues and greens. The paint's thick, alive; you can almost see her pushing it around, trying to catch the light just right. It’s like she’s not just painting flowers, but also the very act of seeing them. The green vase is a solid presence, grounded, while the blue flowers explode out of it in all directions. The way she's dabbed the paint, those little flicks of color, remind me of Van Gogh or the Fauves. Laubser's work, like theirs, is a reminder that painting isn't just about representation; it's about feeling, about being in the world. It shows us how one artist can look at something as simple as a vase of flowers and find a whole world of color and feeling.