Untitled [female nude seated on the floor with left arm raised] 1955 - 1967

Here's a nude by Richard Diebenkorn, painted with watercolor on paper. The dominant blues and blacks create a moody atmosphere, and I imagine Diebenkorn, brush in hand, coaxing this figure into being. It's like he’s feeling his way through it, deciding what to reveal, what to conceal. I can almost feel the scratch of the brush as he lays down those bold strokes, especially in the dark areas defining the figure. It’s not about perfection; it’s about the gesture, the energy. The raised arm feels almost like a question mark against the loose wash of blues suggesting a sky. Diebenkorn's nudes, like his landscapes, capture a sense of place, a moment in time, but also a state of mind. You see the dialogue between abstraction and representation, and how he finds the emotional truth in both. He reminds us that painting is an act of discovery, a conversation between the artist and the world, where ambiguity is not a problem, but an invitation.