Untitled 1961

This Untitled piece, by Joan Mitchell, is an oil on canvas and it's HUGE. Look at the surface, how Mitchell fearlessly piles up color in layers, like an unrestrained emotional landscape. The physicality of the paint is so present. You can almost smell the oil, feel the push and pull of the brush. See how the pinks crash into the greens, that dark patch that bleeds downward. It reminds me of when I’m painting, that moment where the process takes over, and I'm just responding, one color to the next. I love how the work feels unresolved and raw, but at the same time there is an extraordinary balance and poise in the composition. This makes me think of other painters who share this quality, like Helen Frankenthaler, where color becomes the subject itself. Isn’t it great how paintings let us feel and think in ways that words just can’t capture?