Butterflies c. 1910

Odilon Redon painted Butterflies with oil on canvas, and it’s a pretty good example of artmaking as a process of layering and discovery. The colours are muted, almost dreamlike, with a predominance of blues, ochres and browns. Looking closely, you can see how Redon built up the surface with thin, transparent glazes of paint. The texture is smooth, but there’s a real sense of depth in the way the colours blend and overlap. The butterfly in the lower left, for instance, is barely more than a suggestion, a few strokes of paint that capture the essence of its form. It is both there and not there, emerging from the shadows. Redon reminds me a bit of someone like Gerhard Richter, in that both artists embrace ambiguity and multiple interpretations. They don't try to pin down a single meaning, but rather invite us to wander through the painting, to find our own connections and associations.