La Bonne Nouvelle 1980

Paul Guiragossian made this watercolor, La Bonne Nouvelle, with fluid, washy strokes that feel spontaneous. The way the colors bleed into each other tells me that Guiragossian was totally into the process. Look at the center figure. It's all in reds and pinks, like blood or flesh. The paint is so thin you can almost see through it, yet the way Guiragossian layered the strokes gives it depth. I love how the forms seem to emerge from the color, not the other way around. It reminds me of Philip Guston, how he made his paintings feel like they were in a constant state of becoming. The other figures that flank the central form are more ambiguous, with earth tones, browns and blacks. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what they are; it’s about the feeling of emergence and the way the colors create a mood that lingers.