Molecule 2019

Joshua Flint made this painting, Molecule, with oils, I imagine, but who knows what else! The colours are muddy and strange, sort of pushing against each other. I love how he’s not afraid to let the paint do its thing, like he’s in a conversation with the materials, letting the process guide him. Look at how Flint layers the paint, thick in some spots, thin and transparent in others. You can almost feel the physicality of the medium, the way the brush drags across the canvas. The pinky-red flower shapes pull forward, while everything else kind of falls back, dark and mysterious. I keep wondering what's hiding in those shadows. It all comes together in this one little burst of colour. There's a bit of Bonnard in this, maybe, that same love of weird colour and letting the paint be itself. It makes you think about how art is always talking to other art, always changing. It's definitely more about feeling than knowing, which, for me, is what it's all about.