Yellow Painting: October 1958 May/June 1959 1959

Patrick Heron made this Yellow Painting over a long stretch of time, from October 1958 to June 1959. I imagine him, brush in hand, circling around a canvas in his studio, maybe even over several months. What does the colour yellow mean to me? Well, it’s the colour of lemons, of course, and summer afternoons spent in parks. But here, with these dark and earthy tones around it, the yellow starts to look different, somehow muddier. I get a sense of Heron searching for a balance, trying to create a space where colours can speak to each other without one overpowering the others. Look at that large black square; it feels so solid. Then notice the faint circle drawn within it. That's an amazing contrast! Heron was deeply influenced by the earlier generation of Matisse. He's also in dialogue with American abstract expressionists like Rothko. These painters all teach us something about how colours interact and how they make us feel. Ultimately, this painting, like all paintings, is a place of questions rather than answers.