The Ambushers 1967

Robert McGinnis made this movie poster for The Ambushers with graphic ink strokes and washes. Just imagining the process! I can see him working; the hand, the eye, and the material all in sync. He's using the paper surface as a springboard to leap into a world of fantasy and desire, but in a way that's totally tied to the hand. The gestural marks create the figures of Dean Martin and a slew of women on the motorcycle. The colours are bold and sexy, oranges and blues. He lays down these flat planes of colour and creates an image that's both glamorous and a little bit tongue-in-cheek. It makes me think about how painters are always in conversation with each other. The process of making a painting is always this dance between intention and accident, control and surrender. And it's in that space of uncertainty that something new can emerge.