The Long Table with Fruit 1949

Patrick Heron made 'The Long Table with Fruit' with paint, but also with seeing, feeling and thinking. Look at how he's laid down the blues and greens, building the composition with colour, not line. I find the texture of the paint so inviting, like a kind of buttercream frosting. It's thick and luscious in some parts, almost dry-looking in others. But it's in the yellow jug where the painting really comes alive for me. The way Heron works the pigment—thick in some areas, transparent in others—gives it this radiating, sunny energy. It’s not just a jug; it’s a vessel overflowing with light and warmth. Heron reminds me a little of Matisse, in the way he brings a British sensibility to that same love of colour and domestic settings. Art's a conversation across time, full of different voices.