The Explanation

Most abstract painters loftily leave it to the critics to figure out what their squiggles, squares and blobs are all about. But not Mrs. Brenda Jeanes, the London housewife whose 24 in.-by-20 in. abstract won first prize last week at the Royal Society of Arts in the nonobjective category of a competition sponsored by the popular Sunday newspaper The People. Explained Mrs. Jeanes, mother of a 15-year-old daughter: "The abstract was my endeavor to depict life from the fetus to infinity, and the struggle for the first breath of life. The section of rectangles indicates the cut-and-dried life one might hope to live, passing on to life's trials, which are reality, painted in brilliant colors. The small white sections denote tranquillity, and the circle, complete peace."

To be sure, she added, "it also looks a bit like the southeastern coast of the United States--you know, Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia." What technique had she employed to achieve such double-barreled results? "Well," she said modestly, "I started in the upper left-hand corner and just painted down and across." Why? "Because that way the paint doesn't smudge."

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