Untitled [female nude in stockings seated on a striped cushion] 1955 - 1967

This undated painting of a nude in stockings on a striped cushion was made by Richard Diebenkorn. It’s all brushstrokes and sepia tones. I imagine him stepping up to the canvas, trying to work out the balance between light and shadow, form and space. What might it have been like to be him? Studio walls echoing with the scratching of his brush, the smell of turpentine mixing with the afternoon light. I like the quick marks, the way he suggests the curve of a body with these gestures, some thick, some thin, using the ebbs and flows of diluted paint. There's a dialogue happening, a relationship between the artist and subject, between the observed and the felt. The dark strokes capture the weight of the figure, the way the body settles into the cushion. It reminds me of other painters, like Bonnard or maybe even Matisse. Artists are always talking to each other, aren't they?