Paris - S. Sebastien 3 1974

Joaquim Rodrigo painted this landscape with acrylic, in brown and white, maybe in Paris, maybe somewhere else... Looking at this painting, I wonder if Rodrigo was thinking about memory, about place, about home? I'm really struck by the rawness, how the paint has been applied so directly. There are cows, trees, mountains, and architectural structures outlined in white, against the brown ground. These shapes and forms create an almost cartographic representation, a kind of personal map perhaps? The animals and buildings could be like stand-ins for people, places he knew... What’s so cool is how a painting like this keeps a conversation going. It's as if Rodrigo is inviting other painters, like me, to respond, remix, and reimagine the world through paint. Painting becomes a shared space of exploration. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple readings of personal meaning.