Zebra Family 1978

Leroy Neiman made this painting, Zebra Family, with oil on board. Just imagine the act of painting it: it must have come into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Neiman, imagining what it might have been like to create. What might he have been thinking when he made it? The paint is applied pretty thickly with dynamic brushstrokes that shape our experience and contribute to the emotional and intellectual resonances of the work. Look at the strokes of blues and greens that capture the bushland and its textures; Neiman is inviting us to feel the movement, to imagine the zebras’ world as it is expressed through material exploration. Painters are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning over fixed or definitive readings.