Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 5 · column 2 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
Review
grasses, wildflowers and rocks.
The gouache titled Black Mission Figs is a still and quiet painting. The artist takes the perspective of looking down from above, a favorite perspective which appears repeatedly in her work. It is a perspective often taken by Bonnard, a French painter much admired by Barbara.
Matisse is another source of inspiration, and a flavor of Matisse appears in the fig painting.
A simple composition, purpley-black figs in a bowl, like birds in a nest rest on a piece of antique, cutwork linen. The figs and bowl are central, a dark focal point on the pale pink linen, painted with delicate scrolling marks to indicate the hand worked pattern of the cloth. A cadmium orange background or table-top supports the bowl and cloth visually, its odd color choice giving this piece a strange tension and harmony.
It is easy to understand that Bonnard and Matisse have to some degree, stimulated Barbara Sherwood’s vision: there is a shared eye for light in color, patterns in objects and in
95.1%