Untitled (SF 259) 1980

Sam Francis created this untitled work with paint, flicking and splattering colour onto a white background. You can imagine him, can’t you, poised with a loaded brush, making intuitive, decisive gestures? I wonder if Francis felt like he was wrestling with the canvas, or maybe it was more like a dance, a back-and-forth between intention and accident. The vibrant splatters of red, yellow, and pink dance across the surface, meeting with a brooding pool of deep blue. Thick and thin, the physicality of the paint draws me in – I can almost feel the energy of the artist’s hand. Look at the drips and the way the colours bleed into one another. A square in the middle ground, somehow it brings together the whole scene. Francis’s work always makes me think about the dialogue between painters across time, how we riff off each other, borrowing and building on ideas. We are always looking at each other's work, challenging each other, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling. The act of painting is like a conversation. There are no fixed meanings, but rather, a space for endless possibilities, the beauty of ambiguity, and the joy of discovery.