Bottles and Goldenrod
A still life in oil on canvas, painted in 2023 and measuring 19 by 24 inches. The subject is a grouping of old pharmacy bottles arranged on a dark shelf, accompanied by a sprig of goldenrod, the whole composition lit from the left.
The pairing of apothecary glass with a wildflower places the work in a long tradition of intimate tabletop still life, where the interest lies less in grandeur than in the quiet attention paid to ordinary objects. Goldenrod, with its late-summer associations and warm yellow plume, reads as a counterpoint to the cool, utilitarian forms of the bottles, and the directional lighting from the left would naturally cast the kind of raking shadows that give such arrangements their sense of depth and solidity.