Drawing for Sculpture SF65-010 1965

Sam Francis made this watercolor, Drawing for Sculpture, with fluid strokes, flicks, and splatters of bright pigment. You know, I’m always fascinated by how a painting comes into being, all the trials and errors and happy accidents along the way. I imagine Francis standing over the paper, brush in hand, coaxing these shapes into existence. The way the black mark on the left morphs from red to yellow to blue, feels like a journey, a conversation between the artist and his materials. The juicy quality of the paint reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stain paintings. They both allow the paint to seep and spread, creating these luminous, atmospheric effects. That single sweep of blue-green on the right is so simple, yet so evocative. I wonder if he was thinking about how to translate these ideas into three dimensions, how to make painting into sculpture, or sculpture into painting. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. We borrow, steal, and transform ideas, building on what came before. And like this drawing, it's a conversation without a clear destination.