Ann, Thinking, with Flowers 1960

John Bratby's oil painting captures a woman amidst a field of raw brushstrokes and bold colors. I can almost feel Bratby wrestling with the paint, smearing and building up layers to sculpt form and emotion. The thick impasto, the way the colors clash and vibrate—it’s as if the artist is in a hurry, trying to capture a fleeting moment of thought, a gesture, or maybe an emotion. Look at the woman's blue eyes. What’s she thinking? It reminds me a bit of Van Gogh’s portraits, where the intensity of feeling is conveyed through the swirling brushwork and heightened color. Bratby and Van Gogh, like so many artists, are in this ongoing conversation across time, inspiring each other’s creativity. This painting is an embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.