California Picnic, Variations on I Ching Series 1970

Roland Petersen gave us this bright and bold scene, ‘California Picnic’, painted with a generous helping of vivid colors spread across the canvas. Can’t you just imagine him, brush in hand, building up those layers, responding to each mark, each hue, as the composition emerges? I sympathize with the artist who has the challenge of finding pictorial strategies to describe the world. It's such a difficult translation. Those picnic tables, arranged in a grid-like pattern, become a playground for the artist, transforming a mundane setting into a dance of colors and shapes. You can almost feel the Californian sun baking down, the air thick with the scent of sunscreen and anticipation. Each patch of color feels deliberate, a decision made after careful consideration and a dash of intuition. It makes me think of other artists grappling with similar issues, like Fairfield Porter with his domestic scenes, or even Matisse, with his love of color and pattern. It’s all part of this ongoing conversation. Painting is a way of seeing, thinking, and feeling—it's an embodied experience, that embraces ambiguity and allows for multiple interpretations.