Arcades at Vallauris 1927

Raoul Dufy made "Arcades at Vallauris" with oil on canvas, and what grabs me is his attitude to colour; it's like he's saying, “I’m gonna put the blue *here*, and the yellow *there*”. This isn't about copying nature, it's about building a painting. The paint is applied thinly, almost like watercolour, which gives the whole piece a light and airy feel. Look at the columns – they're not solid, but broken up with dots and dashes, like a code or a language. I love how Dufy uses these broken marks to suggest form without defining it too precisely. It’s as if the architecture is dissolving into the light, or maybe solidifying from it. Dufy reminds me a bit of Matisse, both using colour to evoke a mood or feeling. Art is like a conversation, always picking up on things someone else said, and adding your own voice to it. There's always space for new interpretations and ideas.