Vue sur la seine 1998

Aurel Cojan made this painting, Vue sur la seine, with oil, likely in his studio. I can just imagine him standing there, brush in hand, conjuring a landscape, or rather, an interior feeling of a landscape. Look at those marks! Short dashes of red, brown, and black scattered across the canvas. It's like the paint has landed in soft little kisses. They are layered on top of one another, some wet, some dry, creating a real sense of depth. What I love about a painting like this is its immediacy. It feels like Cojan was thinking through the paint, each mark a question, an answer, a new beginning. It’s a conversation, and it makes me think about other painters who use this language of gesture, like Twombly or Joan Mitchell. Artists just chatting away, across time, using the same old materials, paint and canvas, to make something new. It gives me chills!