Angel Stone c. 1960 - 1970

Lee Gatch made this painting, Angel Stone, with strokes of opaque colour, one next to the other. I can imagine him building it up, area by area, the blue first perhaps, and then the yellows, ochres, and greys on top. I wonder what Lee Gatch was thinking when he made this work, was he thinking of Rothko, or Dove? There is something about the yellow mass floating near the top, almost like an eyeball, that reminds me of Marsden Hartley. But here, Gatch gives us a biomorphic abstraction, with the suggestion of a figure, maybe an angel, maybe not. That ochre shape swooping up on either side is so strange and evocative, not quite symmetrical, not quite anything really. And yet it holds the whole composition together, like a big hug, or a stone holding all the other stones. Painters are always in conversation with each other; working through and against the ideas and approaches of others, and this piece is part of that grand tradition of making. The act of painting is as much about feeling your way as knowing your way, and here, Gatch lets the painting emerge through a process of uncertainty.