Magdalena 2007

Richard Hambleton made this painting, Magdalena, with paint, and maybe some silver leaf? It’s this push-pull between representation and abstraction that gets me, the way the colours bleed and blend, like memory itself fading at the edges. Look closely at the texture, how the paint is built up in layers, especially in those areas of deep orange. Hambleton doesn’t try to hide the process; you can almost see the ghost of his hand in those strokes. There's something brave about leaving the evidence of your labor right there on the canvas. It’s not just about depicting something, it’s about the doing, the making, the wrestling with the materials. Hambleton’s work reminds me a little of Cy Twombly, in that both artists use gesture and materiality to create a sense of raw, emotional intensity. And like Twombly, Hambleton reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation. It’s a question, not an answer.