Shadow Jumper, 2007 2007

Richard Hambleton made this painting, Shadow Jumper, on paper with paint in 2007. The image is mostly red, with dark black marks making up a central form and some shapes on either side. I imagine Hambleton might have been trying to capture something fleeting, something that appears in the corner of your eye. It's like he's wrestling with this figure, trying to pin it down with these gestural marks. The way the paint drips and splatters gives it this sense of urgency, like he’s trying to capture something before it disappears. I love the boldness of it. The red and black are so stark and dramatic. It reminds me of some of the German Expressionists, like Kirchner, who were also trying to capture these raw, emotional states. There's a kind of primal energy in the work. You can feel Hambleton’s hand in every stroke, like he’s channeling something deep within himself. That’s what makes painting so powerful, this ability to communicate feeling directly through the material. Ultimately, painting is about exchange, about how artists teach each other to be inventive over time.