Red Spot 1954

John Ferren made this striking painting called Red Spot using oil on canvas. The limited palette and simplified forms feel very contemporary, and the color relationship feels bang on. I love how Ferren handles the materiality of paint. The textures are subtle but the color is opaque with a flat surface. Zooming in on the red spot, you can almost feel the sweep of the brush. Look closely and you will notice how it meets with the grey area to its left, a river of blue running between them. The paint is neither thick nor thin, but laid on with confident assurance. This work reminds me of Myron Stout, another painter working around the same time with a similar interest in color, form and texture. It also speaks to the way that abstract art can evoke the landscape, memory, and emotion. Nothing is ever truly abstract, and everything is in conversation with something else!