Friday, January 31, 2025

Bria Edwards and the power of observation

At the risk of repeating myself, artists have many super powers, and a lot of them center around the simple (to others) power of observation at a level that escapes most ordinary humans.

Let me repeat the story told  in art school by one of my professors - either Alden Mason or Jacob Lawrence.  He used to tell the story of how Manet was once painting outdoors at a park and looking and depicting a water scene.  A man approached him, observed the painting, looked at the scene, looked back at the painting and commented to Manet, "I don't see all those colors there," he said, pointing to the water and trees.  Manet, looked at him and responded, "Dont' you wish you did monsieur..."

Bria Edwards has the super power of observation, and the refined technical abilities to transfer that super power to a substrate and create works of art that take our mind on a worldwide tour of nuances and tones, and light shifts that to most ordinary eyes only exist as a diluted background, but to an artist like Bria Edwards, speaks in high volumes.

She notes about this piece:

This painting is an illustration of a friend. I was visiting her New York City apartment. The room featured beautiful large windows with a wonderful view filled with natural light. I'm constantly fascinated in how black bodies occupy space in relation to light. I enjoyed being a fly on the wall in her home and capturing the essence of that moment.

Behold "On A Saturday Morning" by Bria Edwards, Oil, gold leaf on canvas, 46x49 inches, c. 2022

"On A Saturday Morning" by Bria Edwards, Oil, gold leaf on canvas, 46x49 inches, c. 2022
"On A Saturday Morning" by Bria Edwards
Oil, gold leaf on canvas, 46x49 inches, c. 2022