Untitled 1975

This untitled painting by Jagdish Swaminathan features simplified forms against a golden ochre ground. I like to imagine how it came into being, shifting through trial, error, and intuition! I sympathize with Swaminathan as he paints. I imagine he might have been thinking about how he could use simple forms like hills, a bird, and a floating seed to create a sense of depth. There is a physicality to the medium: thin paint which allows the colored ground to be seen beneath the surface. The marks communicate feeling, intention, and meaning. It connects to his wider body of work, and the work of other painters, in its embrace of simplified form. Artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty and allowing for multiple interpretations.