The Strolling Goose 2008

Bernadette Resha gave us this goose, maybe in acrylic on canvas, or maybe something else. The brushstrokes are so immediate and the marks are direct and simple, so that you can almost feel the artist making it. I love the way the green ground is treated almost as one mass, a kind of wall of paint, made with an all-over coverage that both unifies the surface and makes it vibrate with energy. The marks are rough, not trying to look ‘real’. You can see the little bits of the brush or the tool, and the way the paint globs up and the goose is also made up of these touches. There’s a kind of folk-art sensibility in this piece. I am reminded of outsider art, which is made by people who are self-taught, sometimes with no formal training, and often with no need to be ‘good’ in the traditional sense. This painting opens up a space for imagination; it’s like a conversation between the artist, the goose, and the viewer. It makes you smile, doesn’t it?