August Day 1971

Matt Phillips made August Day with soft translucent washes of paint. It’s like he’s chasing a feeling, a memory, or a mirage, searching for something that's always just out of reach. I love the delicate balance here. The light blue sky is brushed with horizontal marks, evoking a breezy summer day. And the landscape, a hazy mix of greens, whites, and earth tones, feels both familiar and dreamlike. I wonder what Phillips was thinking as he laid down these marks? Did he start with a clear idea, or did the painting reveal itself to him bit by bit? There are these little moments of definition, like the cluster of colors in the bottom right corner. It’s like Phillips is winking at us, reminding us that even in abstraction, there’s always a trace of the real world. It reminds me of work by Forrest Bess, maybe because they both embrace a certain strangeness and ambiguity, leaving room for us to bring our own experiences and interpretations to the canvas. We’re all swimming in the same sea of paint, aren’t we?