A Carlisle City Councillor with Jean and David Bratby 1955

John Bratby made “A Carlisle City Councillor with Jean and David Bratby” with oil paint, though the date is unknown. Look at the brushstrokes; they're really physical, almost aggressive. It's like Bratby is wrestling with the paint, trying to pin down the reality of these people and this room. The texture is thick, almost sculptural in places, especially in the faces. There’s this wild energy, a sort of messy vitality, that reminds me of Soutine. See how the paint is loaded onto the brush and then dragged across the canvas, leaving these thick ridges and valleys? It's like he's not just painting a picture, but building a world out of paint. That central gas heater looks like a weirdly animate character, a kind of totem in this domestic drama. Bratby's work, like a lot of outsider art, shows that painting isn't just about pretty pictures; it's about grappling with the stuff of life, the raw, messy, uncomfortable stuff.