Imagine the gritty feel of an oyster shell, the slickness of a water-smoothed stone, the light caress of a feather, and the twisting sculptural surface of a piece of bark. In this still life, painter Helen Torr drew inspiration from humble elements of nature, turning objects found outside her home in Halesite on Long Island, New York, into a study of texture and form. She painted them in an abstracted, rhythmic style that emphasizes the physical appeal of their varied surfaces. Torr was trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was part of a group of influential modernist artists based in New York who were similarly interested in nature and abstraction.