Ocean Park #70 1974

Richard Diebenkorn’s ‘Ocean Park #70’ is an oil painting that is a whole world of geometric shapes. When I look at this, I imagine Diebenkorn, brush in hand, coaxing these hazy forms into being. I just love the lavender and tan color palette. It feels like a faded memory of a landscape, sun-soaked and serene, with the lines suggesting buildings, light, and shadows. You can see how he’s built up layers, adjusting and responding as the painting unfolds. It’s like a dance between intention and accident, a conversation between the artist and the canvas. This piece really resonates with his wider ‘Ocean Park’ series, echoing the work of other California painters who are playing with abstraction and light, and that push and pull between representation and flat surface. Ultimately, painting’s like a big conversation, where we’re all riffing off each other, across time, finding new ways to see and feel the world. And what could be better than that?