"Creamer, Bottle, and Pear"

This week’s featured painting is “Pear, Olives, Knife, and Peach” from 2017.  It is done with oil on linen, and measures 9 x 12 inches.

If I had unlimited cash, I would of course buy many paintings.

But I would also buy fine antique oriental rugs.

To me, they are not just functional or decorative, but they can be absolute masterpieces of abstract geometrical art – a good rug is an endless source of fascinating colors and designs, and I can get lost for a long time just tracing the patterns with my eyes.

They are everywhere in my studio – on the floor, draped over storage boxes, hung on the wall, even rolled up in the corner for future use. 

None of them are valuable, and most of them are in rather poor shape  – I would much rather have an exquisite ruin than an average rug in decent condition.

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But they are all beautiful in one way or another, and bring a powerful aesthetic sense to the space.  Even when chaotic, a studio should have an underlying beauty about it, since that is where beauty is created.

And of course, they often find their ways into my paintings.

The rug in this painting is a fragment of a larger rug – measuring about 3 x 4 feet – that I’ve had for over 20 years, and I vaguely recall paying less than $50 for it.

I’m hardly an expert, but my best guess is that it generally comes from the area around northern Iran or modern Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and that it was may have been woven in the late 19th or early 20th century.

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This fragment is in very poor condition, worn down to the foundation in many places and it even has a few sizeable holes.  

But it is a vibrant, authentic piece of tribal art, possibly even made by the weaver for the use of her own family, not for the trade. 

It makes me smile every day when I see it in my studio, and it was a great basis for a painting.

Canvas prints of this painting are available.  To see more, click the blue button below.