Watermelon! by Helena Wurzel
8"x10" ($40) | 11"x14" ($85) | 16"x20" ($275) | 24"x30" ($1,450)
Cusp-of-solstice greetings, collectors! It's Jen here. School's out, temps are up and summer's bounty is ripening on the vine as I type. We're celebrating the season with Watermelon!, our newest edition by Cambridge-based painter Helena Wurzel.
Like much of Wurzel's work, Watermelon! is a contemplation of a quotidian moment and also a subtle commentary on the oft-uncredited and always unending work of motherhood. Wurzel tells us that she spends "a lot of time cutting up fruit for my family". The painting focuses on that action. While Wurzel herself is the sole figure visible, it invites the viewer to imagine the larger scene playing out beyond the frame. In my mind, the family's out in the backyard scattered in the slanted light of a summer evening. The sound track is of kids squealing and dogs barking and grown-ups gently gossiping, and the watermelon is the final sweet treat to enjoy at the end of a long, languid summer day.
Wurzel's palette here is daring. Shades of pink and red, distinct and almost discordant, against the backdrop of a riotous Marimekko tablecloth and the way she uses shading to emphasize the shine of that very sharp knife. It's glorious! As with many of my favorite works of art, Watermelon! reminds us that there is beauty, complexity and love to be found in the most mundane moments.
— JenÂ
More work by Helena Wurzel:
