Jarrow Wine 1985

Basil Beattie made this painting, Jarrow Wine, with big, gestural marks of thick, almost cake-frosting-like paint. I can just see him there, shifting and improvising, smearing and building up these luscious colors, trial and error, right? I imagine Basil might have been thinking about color relationships, how pink plays against blue and orange, how the eye moves across the surface. You can see the physicality of the paint; these dabs and swirls are almost edible! The way he layers the paint, you sense a real energy, a kind of joyous freedom. It reminds me of some abstract expressionists, but with a uniquely British sensibility. Painters are always in conversation with each other, across time, inspiring new forms and ways of seeing. It’s this kind of embodied expression that keeps painting alive, a space for ambiguity and endless interpretation.