Burgenland, Neusidlersee (A guide through Austria for extraterrestrial beings No. 7) 1965

Christian Attersee, sometime in the last century, made this painting, part of a series, as a kind of guidebook. The colours are subdued, stormy even. The brushwork in the sky is kind of loose and blended, but down below, in the figure and the landscape, it’s choppier, more direct. The paint isn’t fighting you, but it isn't giving up all its secrets either. You can see the way the brush dragged across the surface, leaving these little ridges and valleys. Look at the way Attersee painted the alien. It's like he's not just showing us what it looks like, but how it feels to be this strange creature, with the little spot of red, a flower maybe. It's a reminder that painting isn't just about making a picture, but about making a world, one that invites us to wander, to question, and to imagine. Like Guston, maybe he’s showing us it’s ok for painting to be weird, funny, and a little bit scary all at once.