As pombas 2010

Julio Resende made this painting, As pombas, using oil on canvas with a colour palette that feels both modern and ancient. I love that it's hard to tell if the paint is applied quickly or slowly because there is a sense of a world being built up over time. The surface is alive with activity; the brushstrokes are visible, and the colours blend and bleed into one another, creating a hazy, dreamlike atmosphere. Look at the yellow marks at the bottom of the image, like wheat in a field. There’s something almost desperate about how they sit against the blue, a kind of controlled frenzy. Resende’s piece reminds me a little of Paula Rego, another Portuguese artist who embraced ambiguity and complex narratives in her paintings. Like Rego, Resende invites us to look beyond the surface and engage with the deeper emotional and psychological currents that run through the work.