Lake Gel-Gel 1943

Eugene Lanceray’s ‘Lake Gel-Gel’ is, in my eyes, a juicy piece of work, and looks to be rendered in oil. The way he’s dabbed and stroked the paint onto the surface gives it a real sense of movement and energy. You get the feeling he didn’t fuss too much, more that he just went with the flow, trusting his eye and his hand. Looking closer, you can see how he's built up the forms with layers of colour, especially in the mountain and trees, the texture feels almost spongey. See how he uses these short, broken strokes to suggest the play of light on the leaves. It’s a brilliant move, because it’s not just about depicting what’s there, it’s about capturing a feeling, a mood, a sense of place. The overall effect is less about representation and more about invention. Lanceray’s work reminds me of that of Pierre Bonnard, both have that similar knack for turning observation into something deeply personal and poetic. For me, painting is always a conversation, a back and forth between the seen world and the world of the imagination.