Thundi - Big River 2010

Sally Gabori made *Thundi - Big River* with paint on canvas, at an unknown date. The colours are laid down with such directness, such confidence – purple, yellow, white, black. The texture is pretty flat, not too thick, but you can definitely see the brushstrokes, like she’s pushing the paint around to make these big bands. Look at the bottom right; there’s this pale lavender peeking through the white, like a shadow or a memory. It reminds me that painting is always a process of layering, of adding and subtracting, of revealing and concealing. And the whole thing kind of curves and bends, like a river, I guess, but also like a smile or a song. Gabori came to painting late in life, and her work just explodes with this untamed energy, like you see in some of the best outsider art. It reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell; that same fearlessness, but with its own totally unique voice.