California Natives 1988

Carlos Almaraz made this painting "California Natives" with visible brushstrokes and a rich, almost edible impasto. The process is right there on the surface. Look at how Almaraz builds up the paint, especially in the figures. The colors are layered, mixed wet-on-wet, creating a real sense of depth and texture, you can almost feel the warmth of their skin. In the lower left, you can see how he used thick, swirling lines of black and white paint to describe the bodies, but also to create a visual rhythm that carries your eye across the canvas. It is a really nice counterpoint with the rest of the composition. Almaraz reminds me a bit of early Diebenkorn. It's the same kind of loose, expressive handling of paint. But where Diebenkorn is cool and detached, Almaraz is warm and sensual, and a bit surreal. Like all good art, this painting embraces ambiguity, offering multiple ways of seeing and feeling the world.