Sevastipol 2003

Doug Ohlson made "Sevastopol" with stacked blocks of colour that hum with optical energy. He's not trying to fool you with illusionism, it’s all about the joy of placing one colour next to another to make the eye vibrate. Looking at it, I’m struck by the physicality of the paint, it’s smooth, almost like silk, but there are definite edges, like he's using tape, but then freehanding around it, letting the colors bleed a little. The orange glows, sitting alongside the cooler blues and blacks, creating a kind of push and pull. See how he’s echoed the form of the central blue rectangle in the bands of orange either side? It almost makes you feel like the painting is breathing! The controlled looseness and saturated colour reminds me a little bit of Kenneth Noland, but with an added layer of warmth and imperfection. Art is always like this, a conversation through form and colour, each artist building on the language of those that came before.