Lone Ranger and Tonto 1981

LeRoy Neiman made 'Lone Ranger and Tonto’ with some kind of paint, maybe acrylics, in 1977. Imagine him slapping down those strokes, a real flurry of color mixing, the pastel hues bouncing off each other. It's like he's trying to capture a freeze-frame of a wild dash across the plains. You know, there's something about the way he handles the paint, it is both thin and thick, like he's in a hurry, but he's also enjoying the feel of the stuff. Look at the way the white of the horse shines through that light blue ground. That white pops. You can see the hand gesture; it comes from the wrist. Neiman's got this energetic style, kind of like a jazzy version of Impressionism, but always figurative. He's not trying to be profound, more like he's having a good time, putting a contemporary spin on a classic American archetype. It's like, how do you make painting fun again? How do you make it now? A question all painters ask themselves all the time.