Week #30, Coming Home IV

Archie Bongé, Camellia Buds, February 1936, oil on canvas

Dusti Bongé, Still Life of Flower in a Green Vase, 1936, pastel on paper

Dusti Bongé, Still Life of Flower in a Green Vase, 1936, pastel on paper

As we mentioned last week, once settled in Biloxi, Dusti Bongé joined Arch in the studio and on his excursions through town. This week we will share another remarkable example of these joint artistic endeavors. This one is from time together in the studio. This was close to the end of Archie’s life, which we know because he dated his painting 1936, the year he passed. 

Here we have a simple still life of red and white flowers in a vase on a round wood table. During this session Arch created a small painting in oil whereas Dusti created two large pastel drawings on pieces of paper that she apparently cut very quickly and crookedly. 

In this comparison we again notice the very different “painterly” approaches Arch and Dusti have. Arch’s painting shows him adopting a freer style than in his previous still lifes. The painting features many tight, repetitive, diagonal brushstrokes applied in a kind of rapid impressionistic style. These change direction into alternating verticals and horizontals in the soft blue background. He really captures the light on the vase, flower petals, and leaves, creating depth with hardly any dark colors. The painting also shows his keen sense of composition as he positions the vase off-center, toward the lower left quadrant.

Both of Dusti’s bouquets feature the flowers in very loose, swirling, gestural marks. The tabletop and background are minimally indicated, just enough to ground the main tableau, with hatched strokes in various directions.  Dusti’s artistic approach is quick and abstracted, her flowers are rounded swirls of white or red with yellow accents. The leaves are simplified curly crescents in various shades of green.

All three versions of this still life offer lovely depictions of the same scene; Archie’s more precise one and Dusti’s highly interpretive one. And they offer an even lovelier example of how they got to work side by side during those brief years in the 1930s.