Water Lilies 2020

Joshua Flint made this painting, ‘Water Lilies’, without specifying a date, seemingly conjuring a memory or a dream. The dark palette and wispy strokes give it a hazy, ethereal quality, like something seen through a veil. The surface is alive with texture; areas of the horse are built up with layers of translucent paint, while other parts dissolve into the murky background. Note the way Flint uses the white to make the horse shimmer, it’s as if the paint is both concealing and revealing at the same time. Zoom in on the lilipads and you see this at play. This back and forth, this dialogue between control and chance, is what makes painting so exciting. It's like a conversation, a push and pull, and it reminds me of Gerhard Richter's blurred photos, where the clarity of the image is always just out of reach. Ultimately, Flint’s painting is about this ambiguity, this refusal to settle on one fixed meaning.