Repast on Smoked Glass

Watercolor on Arches cold pressed paper

29 x 22 1/2 inches

private collection

I painted this watercolor wet in wet; using a pitcher with ceramic qualities placed on a smoked-glass table top. The pitcher portrays fullness itself, whether with wine, water or fresh milk. Beside it, I piled asian and red pears to represent the lusciousness of love and its fruitfulness. Among the fruits also lies a lemon, reminding us that even in abundance, love includes sour as well as sweet. Reflections dim colors; they are seen in glass imperfectly. The lost and found edges of fruit washed by direct sunlight contrast with the mysterious dark shadows in smoked glass.

Finally, still life contains a hidden allegory: that inherent in the beauty of the moment lie the seeds of decay--the vanitas theme of the transience of things and the inevitability of death. Like the depth created by indigo shadows in bright sunlight, the knowledge that all things must pass in time enhances pleasure because one relishes the fleeting moment.