Kowdoolie 1990

Eric Fischl’s painting ‘Kowdoolie’ is made with earth tones and gestural marks that capture a scene, or a memory. Look at how Fischl has built up layers of paint. The way the figures emerge and disappear, makes me think about the act of painting itself as a kind of performance. I can imagine him, brush in hand, making marks, wiping them away, adding more. The painting shifts and emerges through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Fischl, trying to capture the essence of the figures, their movements, their emotions, and the feeling of the scene. The texture of the paint, thick in some areas, thin in others, emphasizes certain feelings. That dark figure on the left, looming and mysterious, communicates a sense of melancholy or maybe tension? I think of other painters wrestling with similar problems like Philip Guston or even Alice Neel, each searching for ways to express themselves. Fischl's piece reminds me that artists are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another's creativity. Painting is all about uncertainty, with multiple interpretations of meaning.