I’ve been trying to work through my obsession with Australian painter Margaret Preston’s early still lives.
And I think I’ve found a pattern.
It’s the table-cloths.
| Margaret Preston, Holiday still life, 1913 |
Preston wrote: Decorative work – it is the only thing worth aiming for in this our century – it is really the keynote of everything. I am trying all I know to reduce my still-life to decorations and find it fearfully difficult.
The patterned fabric’s intersecting lines contrast with the gay flowers and sunny idyllic background space in this table for one painting.
What a colourist.
Julia Ritson
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