Dreamscape 2017

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this small watercolour drawing titled 'Dreamscape' sometime around 2017. Look at how the colours bleed into each other. It feels like he’s trying to catch a fleeting thought. I can imagine Krupa in his studio, brush in hand, spontaneously building the scene with layers of thin pigment. There's a building there and a suggestion of trees but he doesn’t seem interested in representing things so much as feelings. The lines feel urgent, searching for the right form, like Cy Twombly’s scribbles. There's a nervous energy to the line work that gives the drawing an anxious feel. The lavender hues in the top-left corner, though, soften the composition and allow some light into the image. Painters learn from each other, we borrow and steal and argue with the past. Ultimately, this work reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation. It is an invitation to embrace the uncertain and ambiguous.