The Hunter 1995

Norval Morrisseau made "The Hunter" with bold colours on a flat surface, and you can almost see the moment he decided to split the canvas right down the middle between a blazing red and a cool blue. I wonder, was that a decision made beforehand, or did it just happen as he was painting? The image feels immediate, like a dream or a vision fully formed. There's this hunter riding a blue deer, a bird perched on the hunter's headdress – everything outlined in black, giving it a stained-glass kind of feeling. You can see how he’s simplified everything – the hunter’s face, the deer’s body – it’s all about conveying the essence, the feeling. I love how the colours clash and sing at the same time. It reminds me of other self-taught painters who weren’t afraid to break the rules, who just went for it, trusting their gut. It’s a reminder that painting is a conversation, one artist speaking to another across time.