Chabot Valley 1955

Richard Diebenkorn made this oil painting, Chabot Valley, and the first thing I notice are the marks. See how they build up, one on top of another? It's like he’s thinking through the paint, finding the image as he goes. Look at the surface, the way the colors sit next to each other. That pale blue of the house against the red roof. It’s so physical, you can almost feel the weight of the paint. The strokes aren’t trying to hide anything; they’re right there, bold and honest. It's as if each stroke is a record of a decision, a tiny piece of the artist’s thought process made visible. Diebenkorn reminds me a bit of Fairfield Porter, that same interest in the everyday, but pushing it further into abstraction. It’s not about perfection, but about the beauty of the imperfect, the joy of seeing. Art isn’t a fixed thing, and this painting is more like an invitation to look closer, to think about how we see.