Tea Garden from the collection of Coronado Cultural Arts Commission

Tea Garden

Quadriptych oil on canvas

Installed

Location: JD Spreckels Center

Tea Garden 1904 is a painting of those betweens that both interrupt and knit up the visual story. The viewer is presented with a pond on a showery day. More than just raindrops disturb the surface; there are also reflections, shapes, light and dark on that surface. The eucalyptus tree's reflection blocks the sky's reflection and acts like a stencil cut-out, allowing a peek down to the bottom of the pond.

The edges of the reflected tree morph between sky and rain drops. Fish are masked by reflected sky, their full colors revealed by ripples and reflections. All at once, depth, surface, and the layers between them, cloaked and exposed. Between the fish; between the fish and the rain; between interlocking ripples; between the viewer and the pond– are layers of interaction, comings and goings, a flow of water and life and light, unfolding and changing.

Bronle Crosby website: https://bronlecrosby.com/