Untitled (from the Tall Al Zaatar Series) 1976

This expressive watercolor painting comes from Ismail Shammout’s Tall Al Zaatar series. Just imagine how he might have coaxed those layered washes of brown, blue and ochre, coaxing them to run and bleed, letting them shape the figures as they emerged. There’s a real sense of urgency, even anxiety, in the way the paint pools and drips – it’s like Shammout is trying to capture a feeling or a memory before it fades away completely. The mother and children are not so much figures as emotional presences, surrounded by a world that's both dissolving and solidifying at the same time. It reminds me of Marlene Dumas and how she uses the fluidity of the medium to convey vulnerability and tenderness. There’s such a conversation happening between painters across time, where each gesture builds upon the last, inviting us to bring our own experiences to the mix.