Untitled [figure in an armchair] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this watercolor painting, Untitled [figure in an armchair], and it's all about the push and pull of color. The way the blues and greens bleed into each other feels very intuitive, like he's letting the water do some of the work. There's something so immediate about watercolor; you can see the hand of the artist right there on the surface. The way he's built up these transparent layers of color gives the painting a real luminosity. Look at the figure’s face, how the pinks and blues combine to create a sense of depth and shadow. It’s like he’s capturing a fleeting moment, a mood. The way the watercolor pools at the bottom of the image, gives a real sense of gravity. Diebenkorn's use of color reminds me of Matisse, that same joy in pure hues and simplified forms. But Diebenkorn brings his own West Coast sensibility to it all, that feeling of open space and light. It's not about perfection, it's about exploration, about the conversation between the artist and the medium.