Grouping: Pink Ladies c. 1941

John Marin made this watercolour painting, *Grouping: Pink Ladies*, on paper and it’s all about loose, washy marks and a playful dance between the figures and the space they occupy. Marin's got this fantastic way of letting the watercolor do its thing. The pinks of the figures are transparent, not quite covering the paper, and he mixes it with a kind of blue green for the ground. The figures are formed out of these big, gestural swoops, like he's trying to catch their energy more than their perfect form. It feels like the landscape is alive, breathing, shifting right along with them. Look how the figures overlap, it doesn’t matter if you can’t quite work out who is where, it’s about the sense of them, together. The border he’s added reminds me of Bonnard, he was also so good at building up an atmosphere through the simplest of means. Really, this little painting, for me, it’s about how art is a conversation, a playful exchange.