Interaction 1982

Jacob Kainen made this watercolour, Interaction, with washes of colour and a delicate hand. Just imagine the studio, the paper laid out flat, the quiet concentration required to let those colours bleed and mingle, finding their own edges. I love how Kainen lets the paint do its thing. He sets the stage, but the materials have a voice too. The three columns of green-blue, pink, and black - they’re so different in feeling, aren’t they? And that horizontal slash of red, tying it all together like a loose knot. It feels like a conversation between intention and accident. It reminds me of other artists who embraced the unpredictable, like Helen Frankenthaler, but with a more graphic sensibility. Kainen was an printmaker, as well as a painter and this shows in the graphic structure he created. He's part of a long chain of painters, isn’t he? Each one building on what came before, messing with it, pushing it further. Painting is this ongoing, messy conversation.