Ships On A Stormy Sea 2017

Kehinde Wiley made this wild painting, Ships On A Stormy Sea. Look at the gestural marks and intense colour palette; the artist is bringing something to life right before your eyes. The painting itself shifts and emerges through trial, error, and intuition. I can just imagine Kehinde in the studio, thinking of the physicality of the medium, considering the way the paint moves, the way the colours work together. Those thick, energetic waves down at the bottom are not for the faint of heart. The wild brushstrokes communicate feeling and intention; it makes me think about other painters who capture moments of intensity and feeling. Artists have this ongoing conversation across time, where ideas just keep going back and forth, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is just such an embodied expression, an uncertain embrace, that there’s always room for multiple interpretations and meaning.