Weeping Dews 1974

Stanley Boxer made this painting, "Weeping Dews," with what looks like generous layers of oil paint. The palette here is mostly yellow and ochre, like a field of wheat just before harvest, and he's built up a surface that feels both tactile and luminous, it's like he found light within the paint. Up close, you can really see the physicality of the medium. The paint is so thick, almost sculptural, with vertical marks scored into the surface. These create little ridges and valleys that catch the light, adding depth and movement to the picture. Then there are these thin vertical lines, little drips of reddish-brown that cut through the yellow. To me, they feel like tears, or maybe the tracks of snails across a wall. Boxer's work reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell's later paintings, in that they both have this way of using abstraction to evoke a sense of place, but in the end it is still all about the paint. Ultimately, art like this invites us to slow down, look closely, and find our own meanings in the mess.