Untitled 1971

Betty Parsons made this untitled painting with simple shapes and a bold palette. The making feels immediate, process led. Look at how the brushstrokes of orange, form a warm, textured ground, like a field of energy, with cool grey and blue shapes floating on top. These shapes, blobs, lines, clouds, feel like playful interruptions, as if Parsons is thinking through the painting, and these elements are arriving, one by one. I'm drawn to a particular blue squiggle near the top, it suggests movement, a current, contrasting with the static grey shapes which feel more like islands. The contrast between these flat planes and gestural lines, feels like a conversation. It reminds me a little of the paintings of Forrest Bess, another artist interested in the power of simple forms and personal mythologies, or maybe even a bit of Miro! This kind of painting embraces ambiguity, it's not about fixed meanings but about the joy of making.