Odalisque with a Green Plant and Screen 1923

Matisse made this painting of an Odalisque with a Green Plant and Screen, with what looks like oil paint on canvas. Check out the screen on the left. The way the blue paint is laid on so thickly you can almost see the brushstrokes. It makes me think about how much painting is really about layering and covering things up, changing your mind and going over it again. The whole painting is like that, it's a process made visible. I love the warm red ground, which almost vibrates against the cool blues and greens. Matisse wasn't afraid of a little visual tension! And those pants! He doesn't use any modelling so they look flat, and the pattern of yellow and white is applied roughly. It's about the suggestion of form, not about illusion. I see Matisse as a precursor to artists like David Hockney, using color and pattern to create a sense of space and light, rather than relying on traditional perspective. For both artists, painting is as much about surface as it is about subject. It's all about the pleasure of looking and the joy of making.