The Bush 1955

John Ferren made this painting, "The Bush," with what looks like oil paint, and maybe some other stuff mixed in, the date isn't known. Look at how Ferren lets the paint breathe. It’s not about hiding the strokes, but more about a dance between control and letting go. The colors! A soft, almost faded palette, like a memory of a garden. Then BAM! This burst of red and orange that just vibrates. It feels like he’s not just painting what he sees, but what he feels. There's a kind of intuitive geometry going on, and a dialogue between abstraction and figuration, as in, is it a bush, or a feeling. There’s this one spot, near the center, where the red bleeds into a hazy blue. It's not perfect, it’s smudged, and it’s beautiful. Like a mistake that turned into a revelation. It reminds me a bit of Milton Avery's way of playing with color and form, where the painting is not about making something picture perfect but more about capturing a mood or a fleeting thought.