Carmen set the houses along this canal at uneven heights, and that is the whole decision.
At a glance it is an ordinary street at the end of the day. Grey stone, green ivy, warm wood, one lamp doing all the work. A single figure walking home with their back to you.
Then you look down at the water
The reflected house fronts and the dark gaps between them line up into a piano keyboard. Pale key, black key, pale key, all the way along the canal. Nothing is painted onto the water. It is only the buildings, upside down, and the spaces where they are not. Our critic Ruby put it best: “The canal’s reflections ingeniously form a piano keyboard, offering a delightful hidden element.” The panel average is 8.67.
Carmen never tells you it is there. Dusk light, every time, and a small element hidden for the second look. As she says it: I paint the half-remembered, not the imagined. There is a difference.
What it does in your house
Children find the keyboard first, usually within a minute, and they are very pleased about it. Adults take longer and then cannot unsee it. After that the eye goes to the walking figure, and people start deciding where they live. You will be asked about this picture more than once, and you will enjoy answering.
Getting it up
Matte canvas, a visible weave, stretched over solid wood an inch and a quarter deep. The amber glows out of the deep indigo instead of bouncing a lamp back at you. The image wraps the edges and it arrives ready to hang – one nail, no frame, no extra bill. A useful rule: make the picture about two-thirds the width of whatever sits under it.
Landscape, 16×12 in (41×30 cm) $129, 24×18 in (61×46 cm) $149, 32×24 in (81×61 cm) $229. A high quality print of a digital artwork, made to order in up to ten business days, free shipping in the continental US. The price you see is the price.
Who should skip it
Anyone who wants a restful wall, or a picture that explains itself in one look. This one keeps something back.
Take it home if that sounds like your kind of room. Or go see the rest of what Carmen has hidden – follow her, and you will find the next one before anyone tells you what to look for.
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