Ocean Waves 2005

Ray Howlett, born in 1940, made this painting called 'Ocean Waves'. Look at these rainbow-coloured drips and curls that recede into the distance. The act of painting, especially with all these drippy lines, becomes a way of seeing, or even thinking about ways of seeing, the world. I can feel Howlett's hand controlling and also losing control of that paint. I imagine him, totally focused, tilting the canvas this way and that to make each little line run just so. The colours move from red to yellow, like a sunset, against a weirdly pale ocean wave, and that wave becomes the horizon line. I bet Howlett was thinking about what it means to see a horizon. It’s like he is trying to map out a world he can see, but also feels, a conversation across time. The piece has an ongoing exchange of ideas that inspires creativity. Painting is a form of expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.