The Time of Your Life 1945

Beauford Delaney made this painting called, “The Time of Your Life” with what looks like oil on canvas, and wow, is it ever jam-packed with people and stuff. The bright colours are divided up with thick black outlines, kind of like stained glass but alive! I love how the paint is just slapped on, not too fussy or blended. Check out the waiters in the middle, how they're both standing so straight, yet their faces are just smudges. Delaney really uses the texture of the paint to give the figures a real sense of presence, even when they're just kinda hanging out. The way he puts those colours next to each other, like that pink and green up top, you can feel the energy. Delaney was all about colour and light. You can see that in the work of someone like Van Gogh, too, that same love for capturing a feeling with colour. And like Van Gogh, it's like he's reminding us that art is a conversation, an exchange of ideas that keeps going.