redder as it descends, while the interior shows a dark vermilion- red cloud hovering over a horizontal band of white pith trailing off into gold. The matted six-by-eleven-inch study for “Cara Cara” looks even more like a miniature Rothko painting than the finished diptych. Luminous swaths of orange float above a white horizontal veil giving way to blushing gold. The slippery quality of these works in the eye and mind perhaps relates to their portrayal of a state that seems fixed but is inevitably fluid. They recall Dutch still life paintings where dimpled lemons and pearly oysters forever shine, painted images of nature that defy the toll of time. Yet Golden Age Dutch painters knew all too well that no one can arrest decay, as they implied by pointedly including a skull, fly, or knife amid the bounty on the table. At their best, nature studies are always about what we can see and what we can’t. Craddock’s art portrays glistening fruit and vegetables straight from the farmstand, slicing them Study for Italian Eggplant1, 2016