Untitled 1996

This small oil on canvas by Ilse D'Hollander is a world of subtle color and stacked up forms, kinda like a landscape that's been put through a blender. I can almost feel her there in the studio, slowly building up layers of paint, wiping them away, and then starting all over again. It’s a total conversation with the painting itself, as if she’s trying to coax something out of it. The way the paint sits on the canvas, not too thick, not too thin, it’s like she’s searching for that perfect balance between control and letting go. And those little pale rectangles! They pop against the deeper browns like memories or dreams. I think D'Hollander was really onto something. She reminds me a bit of Forrest Bess, another painter who was trying to find a new way of seeing and feeling. Painting is this never ending conversation, isn't it? We’re all just borrowing and stealing from each other, trying to make something new out of something old.