All About Blue 1994

Helen Frankenthaler made this beautiful abstract painting, All About Blue, with oil on canvas. It's a dance of color and line, a testament to the magic that happens when you let the process lead. I love how the blues here feel almost watery, like looking through a rain-streaked window. And then those glowing yellow shapes at the bottom, they're like suns, or maybe even lamps, anchoring the piece. Look at the way Frankenthaler uses thin, washy layers of paint, allowing the canvas to breathe through, and compare that to the bold strokes of white and yellow that make up the skeletal structure of the painting. The whole thing has a lightness, a sense of freedom that reminds me of Joan Mitchell, another painter who wasn't afraid to let her emotions flow onto the canvas. In the end, these paintings aren't about answers, they're about questions, about feeling, about the endless possibilities of paint.