Our Veins, The Earth’s Veins 1969

Iran Darroudi made this evocative oil on canvas painting, *Our Veins, The Earth’s Veins,* using bold, gestural marks to hint at a narrative that feels both personal and universal. It's all about process, where the act of painting itself seems to reveal the image. I’m really drawn to the physicality of the piece; the way the thick, almost sculptural strokes of white and grey contrast with the fluid pools of red. There's a tension between the controlled brushwork in the cityscape and the more chaotic, expressive marks around the red area. Look at how the paint drips and bleeds – it’s like she’s letting the materials speak for themselves, allowing chance to play a role in the final image. That fiery red pool, it’s both visceral and kind of beautiful, a reminder of the raw energy that connects us to the earth. I see echoes of Gerhard Richter's blurred cityscapes here, that same sense of longing mixed with a kind of apocalyptic beauty. Like Richter, Darroudi embraces ambiguity, inviting us to find our own meaning in the interplay of form and color.