Open Book, Green Candles and Quills

Two guttering green candles stand in turned white sticks before a recessed grey panel, their melted wax rendered with cool precision. An open book rests on a carved wooden lectern at the left, its pages catching the daylight that pours across pale cream drapery.

The arrangement is a small still life of study: red-bound books, two brass vessels, glass ink bottles and the black quills planted in them. The painter balances the crisp architecture of the panel against the soft folds of cloth, and keeps the palette quiet so the green flames read as the single note of colour.