Geraniums

Bessie Mulholland earned her MFA at the University of Colorado in 1943. While there she traveled around the state and painted watercolors in mining towns. It is likely that this daring composition is from one of those trips. Rather than depict a road through town from the sidewalk, she added layers of content by working at the window of a hotel coffeeshop. The rhythms introduced by the row of plants, window frame, and radiator grill make an already animated view of buildings even more exciting. A careful and knowledgeable technician, Mulholland wrote her master’s thesis on water-based paints and their hand-made recipes.