Trichromatic Flower Piece 1974

Richard Hamilton made this flower piece with energetic, gestural marks and a limited palette of reds, blues, and muted whites. You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the surface, building up the image through layers of colour and form. I imagine Hamilton, brush in hand, circling the canvas, responding to the emerging forms, adding a dab of red here, a stroke of blue there, coaxing the flowers into being. Look at how the reds of the flower petals are echoed in the shadows beneath the vase—a subtle harmony that ties the composition together. The paint looks thin here, almost like watercolour, allowing the white of the paper to shine through and create a sense of light and airiness. It reminds me of Manet's flower paintings, with that same kind of loose, impressionistic touch. Painting flowers, it’s an ongoing conversation. It's a way of seeing and feeling the world, captured in a fleeting moment of beauty. It is not about perfect representation but about finding something new to say.