The Wide Arena of Air 2016

Joshua Flint made 'The Wide Arena of Air' using a muted palette of blues, greens, and grays, with figures emerging from a dreamlike landscape. I imagine Flint layered the oil paints thinly, allowing the forms to develop gradually, shifting and emerging like memories or half-seen visions. I really sympathize with an artist creating a piece like this, you can sense him thinking about half-remembered childhood scenes, like figures exploring an otherworldly forest. What might he have been thinking as the ghostly bodies took shape against the misty background? There’s something about the blurring of edges and the merging of figures with their surroundings that feels significant. The paint is applied in such a way that the figures are not clearly defined, but rather seem to dissolve into the landscape, emphasizing a sense of ephemerality and interconnectedness. This reminds me of other painters like Odilon Redon or even Gerhard Richter, who explored similar themes of memory, perception, and the blurring of boundaries in their work. The conversation between painters across time is always ongoing. The best art is the kind that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.