Blenheim 1972

This is Blenheim, by Leonard Lehrer, and from the look of it, it's made with precise marks. What was it like to make this, I wonder? I can feel Lehrer’s concentration. Look at the evenness of the marks as they render the whole scene: the stairs, the fountain, the trees in the distance. He must have been so in the zone, his mind fixed on the scene before him. It makes me think about the different ways artists see and interpret the world. It feels like Lehrer is inviting us to contemplate a very ordered view. His dedication to this meticulous approach is so impressive. And yet the garden scene itself is so idyllic that you get drawn into the overall effect and forget how precise it is. I guess we’re all in an ongoing conversation, artists across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. In the end, painting is just another way of embracing all of our ambiguous feelings and experiences.