Child playing in camomilles 1953

Picasso painted this image of a child playing in camomilles using an intuitive approach to colour and line. He doesn't seem interested in depicting reality as he saw it. I can imagine him standing back, squinting, dabbing the painting with a colour here, and a colour there. What I love about Picasso is his ability to just use whatever's around him – like that striking background, a playful rendering of some trees. It’s like a child’s drawing, so direct and honest. It's a world he sees and translates onto the canvas with absolute confidence. The white camomilles have been built up with thick paint. His application is simple, but he’s not afraid to be bold and expressive. Picasso always makes me think about how we keep the conversation going in painting, building on what came before. Each generation teaches the next, and so on. It’s never-ending. It’s that ambiguity that makes painting such a vibrant and vital form of expression.