Berkeley #13 1954

Richard Diebenkorn made *Berkeley #13* with oil on canvas, and looking at the image I feel a sense of California light and air. I love the muted colors and broad strokes, especially how he's built up layers of paint, scraping back and forth to reveal what’s underneath. It looks like he kept changing his mind. I can almost see Diebenkorn there, brush in hand, figuring it out as he went, one layer informing the next. Those greens and reds remind me of a landscape, but not in a representational way. More like an emotional landscape – a feeling of being in a place, rather than a picture of it. There’s a dialogue happening with other painters, too – Rothko, maybe, or even Matisse. It makes you think about how all art is a conversation, one artist building on the ideas of another, each adding their own voice to the mix. Painting is such an interesting medium, isn't it? It's always an experiment, with no correct way to do it.