Messaging 1980

Paul Delvaux made this 150 by 150 cm painting, titled Messaging, in oil on canvas. I look at these ghostly women gathered like a gaggle of perplexed swans, and I imagine Delvaux painting them, layering the whites and greys, blurring the edges, as if they are fading into the canvas itself. Their expressions are enigmatic, like sleepwalkers in a midday dream. Maybe he felt like he was wandering in a dream too, trying to capture the weightless figures, and the strange city that stretches out behind them. That eerie tram, is it arriving or leaving? Is this painting a message or a question? It reminds me that painting is an ongoing conversation, ideas and images travel through time, appearing and reappearing in unexpected ways. The act of painting allows for multiple interpretations, like whispers in the wind, each one unique and fleeting.