Houses in Trouville 1933

Raoul Dufy made this painting, Houses in Trouville, with oil on canvas. Look at how Dufy sets down the buildings with these quick, confident strokes of red and white. He’s not fussing about getting it perfect, more like capturing a feeling. It's a great example of artmaking as a process, a kind of visual thinking-out-loud. What strikes me is the physicality of the paint itself – how it sits on the surface. Thick in some places, thin in others, almost like he's sketching with the brush. See how the blue of the sky drips down into the buildings? It reminds me of Matisse, another artist who wasn't afraid to let color do its thing. Dufy's art really embraces ambiguity, which is something I try to do in my own work. It's not about having all the answers, but about creating a space for questions and possibilities.