BC079
Untitled
[Flowers in a Green Vase Placed on the Seat of a Chair]
Still life. Side of loosely indicated brown chair. Green narrow-necked vase placed on chair. Three shapes, two red/pink, one orange, to right of centre, with brush strokes of white between and around them. Upper canvas, coloured, loosely formed shapes.
LL blue brush point Helen Scales, 1974 (date barely legible)
Verso (not in artist's hand) study in her flat in Auckland, about 1974
Private Collection
New Zealand
Verso information and date supplied by artist to Patience Tennent, the original owner, in 1974.
Alternative title, Jar with Flowers, placed on chair, taken from the exhibition Flora Scales at The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatū, Nelson, 2018.
Touches of blue paint on the frame, where the brush strokes of the signature and date end, suggest they were added by the artist after the canvas was framed.
This is a colour study in which the flowers, the round shapes which are perhaps fruit, the chair and vase are tonally integrated. Flowers seem to have dissolved into the background and the vase to have melted onto the chair seat. White brush strokes between and around the coloured fruit give a sense of space and stability to the deliquescence.