Nyinyilki 2010

Sally Gabori painted this vibrant image, Nyinyilki, with what looks like acrylic on canvas. The brushwork is broad, almost gestural, and the colour palette has a raw, unstudied feel which is very similar to the way I approach putting paint to canvas. There is so much life in these strokes. The paint is applied thickly, almost like frosting, with visible ridges and textures that catch the light. The fuchsia and black, separated by lines of white, create a dynamic tension, pushing and pulling our eyes across the surface. Looking closely at the top left corner, I am drawn to how the white and black overlap the pink, disrupting its dominance, and adding a layer of complexity and visual interest. Gabori reminds me of another painter who wasn't really a painter, Forrest Bess. Like him, Gabori creates art with a totally singular vision, painting from a place deep inside herself, making work that feels authentic and untamed. This authenticity embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations.