Anna Mae 1944

William H. Johnson painted this portrait, Anna Mae, with a kind of loving directness using a range of vibrant colours and simplified forms. I imagine Johnson, brush in hand, building up layers of colour, shifting and adjusting, zeroing in on the essence of his sitter. Look at that saturated purple chair against the green dress patterned with white dots. Then there's that orange seat. The paint looks like it's been laid on quite thickly. It feels intuitive, like a patchwork of feeling, the overall effect is kind of dreamlike. Johnson’s got this way of capturing something really human, in a way that reminds me of folk art, where there’s a real honesty in the mark-making. Artists like Johnson teach me about the ongoing possibilities of paint, it is a form of conversation that continues across decades.