For Helen and Nicole 1978

Ronnie Landfield made *For Helen and Nicole* with what looks like fluid washes of acrylic. The painting feels like the process of painting itself, shifting and emerging through experiments, errors, and maybe even moments of pure intuition. I can imagine Landfield thinking about Helen and Nicole, maybe even painting their portraits—abstracted and blurred here. I see the canvas and the way it absorbs the colors. The thin paint allows the surface to breathe and shapes our experience of the painting with these emotional and intellectual echoes. The gesture of the upper wash, cloudy and indistinct, communicates a feeling of gentle melancholy. This piece relates to Landfield's wider practice, which often explores color field painting, but also the work of other painters, like Helen Frankenthaler, who similarly investigated the possibilities of color and light. Artists are always in conversation, inspiring each other's creativity across time. Painting becomes a way of expressing feeling, embracing uncertainty, and allowing for multiple readings.