Composition 1963

Huguette Arthur Bertrand made this painting, called Composition, at some point in her career with thin washes of colour. I like to imagine her in the studio, shifting these marks around, letting them land here or there, like one of those fishing games at the fair. It looks like it came into being through trial and error, intuition and chance, and an openness to what the painting might become. There's a lovely combination of greys, blacks, reds and yellows that swim together on the canvas. See that reddish form in the center? The paint seems to bleed outwards, creating an aura of warmth and light. I'm drawn to the way Bertrand embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. It's a reminder that artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time and space, inspiring one another's creativity. Painting's like that; it’s embodied expression. It’s not about fixed meanings; it's about possibilities.