African Night Market 1965

Walter Battiss painted this image of an African Night Market with what looks like acrylic or oil, but with the carefree attitude of watercolour. The way the pigment sits on the surface has a lovely matte finish, with details emerging from a dark, saturated background. There’s something about the layering here that gets me, the figures are built from strong, flat planes of colour. Look at the pitcher near the bottom – how the pink is scraped on, a bit like frosting. The composition feels spontaneous, yet the balance of light and dark is carefully considered, isn’t it? The painting has an unpretentious, almost childlike quality, reminiscent of Joan Miró's playful approach to form and colour. Battiss invites us to see the world through a lens of joyful, uninhibited expression. Like a true original, he reminds us that art is a continuous experiment, a conversation between artists across time.