Grace Cossington Smith - Later Still Lifes

Later Still Lifes

Grace's later still lifes are works that explore the use of different colours put together to give a unifying feel. She painted many still lifes of fruit, jugs and vases with glimpses of drapery and parts of the room behind. In style, they consisted of many individual, choppy, squarish brush strokes making up the whole, varied in colour, but still giving an overall yellowish feel. She has a striking sense of perspective, and great eye for detail, planting the objects firmly in three dimensional space. Still life with red vase, 1962, shows a bold red vase contrasted with the background made from its complementary opposite colour, green, or at least, greenish-yellow. Another jug to the right blends in with the background, while the red jug is firmly planted in the perspective of the table. Still life with white cup and saucer, 1971, one of her last paintings, shows several jugs, green, red and yellow, all given a sense of being very solid objects, with a delightful white cup and saucer nearby. She was very frail after this, being unable to paint any more large works.