Eggs in paintings are irresistible.   Their shape, range of subtle colors, and ways of reflecting light and casting shadows all easily engage painters and viewers.  Eggs play well with others, both organic and inorganic objects.  They inspire a variety of interesting still life compositions.  And then there is their delicacy paired with a strong promise of life and good eating.  Eggs suggest all kinds of meaning and narrative possibilities.   Below is a slide show of egg paintings that have recently caught my eye. 

The last of the slides is a painting on a plate by Lorenzo, a Mexican ceramic artist and architect I encountered in San Miguel de Allende.  David says I never met a plate I didn't like.  True, but these plates were especially fantastic. 

Eggs are also very present in my own studio.  Here are two recent egg paintings that will appear in an upcoming local art show in Pine Plains, hosted by the Friends of the Pine Plains Library, from June 3rd through 5th. 

There is a stunning exhibition of Robert Motherwell's collages at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in Chelsea (on view at 293 Tenth Avenue until May 21st, 2016).  Motherwell sets a simple thing like a cigarette wrapper in a background of beautiful color and thereby, makes it sing and change the viewer's heart rate. 

And there are many more simple things on the gallery walls.  Motherwell creates beautiful art from the stuff of daily life, the stuff at hand, the stuff delivered to him by the mailman.  The remarkable emotional effect of his collages has of course to do with Motherwell's skill at selecting, tearing, pasting, and pulling stuff together to make an image.  All that he knew about art also helped.  But still, I find myself wondering about the difference made by the quality of the stuff he had to work with. I don't think the stuff of our daily lives is as good as what he had.  For example, there is something very beautiful about the brown paper, many stamps, official labels, and hand lettered addresses in beautiful script that came with all the packages that Motherwell received, and then used in his art.  Fed Ex envelopes and email messages  just don't offer the same artistic possibilities, at least for me.