Untitled Landscape, Bellport (No.256) 1990

Arthur Pinajian made this Untitled Landscape, Bellport with paint, maybe oil, and a whole lot of energy. Look at how the colors are slathered on, thick and juicy. It's like he's wrestling with the canvas, trying to pin down a feeling more than a scene. I love that, because art isn’t about copying what you see, it's about what you *feel*. Notice the way the white paint kind of pulls everything forward, while the yellows hang back, almost like sunshine. See that slash of black near the bottom? It cuts right through the sweetness and throws the whole thing off balance. That’s brave. To me, it suggests how landscapes aren't always pretty vistas, but can also be full of unexpected and even jarring moments. It feels like a landscape by Joan Mitchell, full of emotion and gesture. Art, like life, is messy and unresolved, full of questions more than answers.