The Strolling Goose 2008

Bernadette Resha’s “The Strolling Goose” is a painting of a goose striding across the canvas against an energetic background of greens. I can almost feel the brushstrokes as the artist worked, probably intuitively and with a degree of looseness. I am drawn to the painterly surface; you can almost see Bernadette’s own movements. She's probably thinking about the bird in motion and the way the goose's form contrasts with the background. I bet she had a lot of fun with the texture of the feathers! Notice how the thick paint seems to mimic the goose's plumage, giving it a tactile quality. The way she has captured the goose's waddle and the way the body is weighted on the ground seems so right. I’m thinking about other painters of animals, how one mark builds on another over time. It's a constant conversation! Bernadette has her own voice in that conversation, one that embraces the immediacy of painting. It’s like she’s saying, "Here's a goose, here's some paint, let's see what happens."