Evergreen Licks 1987

Sam Francis made "Evergreen Licks" using oil on canvas, and it’s a real dance of color and gesture. He was all about the process, letting the paint do its thing, splattering and dripping across the surface. The canvas is mostly white, but it’s hardly empty. Blobs of green, red, and blue collide and mingle, creating this wild, energetic feel. Look at the way the paint drips down, like it's running away. The colors are vibrant, almost psychedelic, giving the impression of something alive and growing. There’s this one area, a cluster of dark blue and purple, surrounded by tiny splatters of red and yellow. It anchors the whole composition, giving it a sense of weight and depth. I get a sense of Helen Frankenthaler, who also stained her canvases with pools of colour. Like her, Francis shows us that painting is as much about letting go as it is about control. It’s about embracing chance and finding beauty in the unexpected.