Still Life with Oranges in a Basket 1923

Edvard Weie painted this still life with oils on canvas, and it’s now here at the SMK. I see these brushstrokes, all these shifting planes of color that are just *almost* oranges, lemons, and leaves – it’s like the ghost of a still life, captured in paint. I can imagine Weie, stepping back, squinting, and then *bam*, laying down another stroke, trying to nail that fleeting impression. Look at that slash of blue cutting across the top right. It feels spontaneous, like a quick decision, a way to balance the weight of the oranges. You can see him juggling color and form, pushing and pulling, trying to make it all sing. It's like Weie is not just painting what he sees, but how he feels about what he sees. Painters like Weie, they're all in conversation, you know? Each one building on the last, remixing the past, trying to figure out what it all means to them, and making a new space to figure things out in paint.