pleasing palette

during our recent trip to chicago we went to the art institute to see a manet exhibit currently running there. in the last room was a tiny painting labeled simply “plums.” but like a Proustian madeleine moment, that painting brought our family back to a picnic by a spring in the mountains of the haut languedoc, where we sat at a table and ate greengage plums picked fresh and still sun warm from our neighbor’s orchard. the manet painting exactly captured their matte finish and whitish bloom, and their dull green color with little cinnamon and orange stains where they were just getting overrripe. they were, as a matter of fact, just about exactly the color palette of these yarrow fronds, and all i could do was stand and admire, both the plums, and the technique involved in bringing them to (still) life.

wild yarrow leaves