Sun and Sky 1979

Victor Pasmore made this painting called ‘Sun and Sky’ and it feels like a kind of experiment in letting go. That big blue splodge – was that the beginning? Did he just let it happen? I can see it now: Pasmore steps back, squints, and says, ‘Okay, what now?’ And then comes that funny little structure made of straight lines and floating circles in pink and yellow. It’s as if he's trying to bring order to the chaos, or maybe just a little visual joke? I think of the process of painting as a site of inquiry, a way of thinking through making. It's like Pasmore is showing us that painting can be about playing with the push and pull between accident and intention, and the many ways we experience our world. Artists are always in conversation, borrowing and riffing off each other, adding their own twist, their own splash of blue.