Cloud Painting 2016

Benoit Maire made this painting, Cloud Painting, at some point, using, well, I can only guess! It looks like oils and maybe some kind of solvent or wax to make the paint behave in interesting ways. The painting's surface is really intriguing, kind of scraped back in places. There's a dialogue going on between the sandy color in the background and the fresher hues dropped on top – pale blues and pinks, soft lilacs. Take a look at the big white cloud in the middle; the paint is applied so thinly that it’s almost like a stain, soaking into the canvas. It's like watching a cloud dissolve before your eyes. Then, there's that scumbled texture around the edges, like dry-brushing with a barely-there touch. This makes me think of Giorgio Morandi, who, like Maire, sees painting as a slow, contemplative process, embracing modesty and repetition. It's all about the subtle shifts and nuances that emerge over time. It feels like he embraces the idea that a painting is never really finished, just existing in a state of perpetual becoming.