Captain Blue 1979

Ronnie Landfield created *Captain Blue* using blocks of saturated colour and gestural marks that are anything but accidental. I wonder how Landfield began, maybe by staining the canvas with that intense yellow? I imagine him shifting the painting, rotating it, adding one colour at a time, and then letting the painting sit, so he can later respond. I can imagine the colour relationships being a real puzzle. The physicality of the oil paint, though thinned, adds a richness, particularly in the assertive blue rectangle which pulls the whole composition together. Its placement is bold, like a curtain about to be pulled back, while the horizon line of solid blue grounds all the blocks of colour above. This work reminds me of Helen Frankenthaler's soak-stain paintings, where colour is the main event. Painters are always in conversation, always looking, and borrowing, and adding their own voice to the mix. This is what keeps painting alive for me, this ongoing exchange. When we look at paintings, we bring our own stuff to it, too. It’s a beautiful collaboration across time.