Seafood 2001

Howard Hodgkin made this abstract painting, titled 'Seafood', with oil on paper. Hodgkin's brushstrokes are so confident, so decisive! Look at how the blues and blacks blend and contrast, creating this sense of depth and movement. It reminds me of how artmaking is a process, a conversation between the artist and the medium. Each stroke informs the next, building layer upon layer of color and texture. Check out the bold, almost calligraphic gestures of paint around the edges. They’re thick and juicy, conveying a real sense of the material’s physicality. In the upper right corner, the paint thins out, becoming almost transparent, revealing the paper beneath. I'm reminded of his contemporary, Gillian Ayres, whose own playful use of colour and form also embodies a similar spirit of expressive freedom. These gestures embrace ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meanings.