Raking Sand Rand 2017

David Michael Hinnebusch made this painting, *Raking Sand Rand*, with paint on what looks like a found piece of card. The colours are laid down flat, with a sense of urgency, almost as if he’s fighting against the clock. I can feel that as a painter myself! There’s something really wonderful in the way he’s used the texture of the board to his advantage. You can see the grain coming through, especially in the lower part, where he’s used white paint to create this kind of ghostly image, like a memory of something washed up on the beach. The way the figures are built up from flat planes of colour and sharp black outlines makes me think of those early paintings by Marsden Hartley, but Hinnebusch has a rawer, more immediate energy, like he’s trying to capture the feeling of a place rather than just its appearance. It’s like he’s saying, ‘This is how it felt to be there, this is what I saw, this is what it meant to me.’ And in the end, that’s all that really matters.