A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree
This conversation is connected to A Blue Jay Flew Up in a Tree.
Flat planes of brown, blue, white, and black are arranged vertically with a blue wedge shape at center, flanked by warm brown forms, with a white strip running down the right side and small blue ovals at the lower right. A single black dot sits near the upper left. The title places this as a specific moment observed in nature, but the painting has been reduced to pure color and shape: the bird, the tree, the sky all compressed into interlocking geometric planes. Dove called his process "extraction", pulling the essential forms and colors from a natural scene until nothing representational remained. Oil on canvas.