Taffy Roberts 1952

John Bratby’s portrait of Taffy Roberts is an ode to process, the kind where painting becomes a way of thinking through seeing. I can almost feel the weight of Bratby’s brush as he loaded it up with paint. The marks here are dense and urgent, like he’s trying to capture a fleeting thought or feeling before it disappears. It reminds me that sometimes the real subject of a painting isn't just what's depicted, but the act of painting itself. It's as if Bratby is saying, “Here I am, wrestling with this image, trying to pin it down.” And that struggle, that back-and-forth between the artist and the canvas, is where the magic happens. You can see how the energy translates into every stroke, a testament to how painting is a continuous feedback loop of thinking and seeing. It makes me want to grab a brush and jump into the fray, knowing that it's through the act of making that we truly begin to understand.