Female Nude Reclining on Blue Ground 1940

William H. Johnson made this painting, Female Nude Reclining on Blue Ground, with a kind of directness that just grabs you. It's all about the process, isn't it? Look at how he's laid down the paint, kind of flat, kind of fast. It's not about illusion or detail, it's about the sheer joy of putting color next to color, that blue against the brown, with just a hit of yellow above. The woman's body, it's so present, so real, even though it's just lines and shapes. And those black outlines, so sure, so bold, giving definition to the mass of her form. Notice the way her fingers are interlaced, those small, almost childlike, details, how do they affect your understanding of the piece? For me, this painting feels like a conversation between Matisse and maybe some early American folk art. It's simple, but full of feeling. It makes you think about how we see, how we feel, and how painting can be so much more than just a picture.