The contemporary American artist Gladys Nilsson creates colorful, often surreal figurative watercolor paintings. This painting incorporates many distinctive aspects of her style, including figures with elongated, wavering body parts, bright colors, and impossibly overlapping foreground and background elements. Some small figures at the bottom appear to be both in front of and behind objects in the foreground. The unusual, dreamlike subject matter is also similar to other works by Nilsson. Here, the scene has several cowboys talking to scantily clad women, with three large cowboys in the foreground holding teacups. One holds a teapot and pours into the cup of another. A smaller cowboy is in the background next to a table with a teacup and saucer.
The painting’s title is a pun on “foursies,” a term Nilsson uses for her ritual four o’ clock meeting for drinks with neighbors. It also references the popular Earl Grey style of black tea.
Read more from Nora Weston’s article about Gladys Nilsson.