Second Encounter of Jackson Pollock's 'Summertime Number 9A'

Viewing this painting a second time, the first thing that struck me was the length of it. On my first encounter I had been so absorbed by the large drip-like gestures that it hadn’t come to mind the odd size if the painting. It’s not the general kind of rectangle canvas, but instead isn’t very tall at all, but is extremely long lengthways. It reminds me of a letterbox shape. One other thing I hadn’t really paid much attention to the first time was the smaller marks. There were small green marks all over the painting. Also, I began to notice the grey dripped gestures beneath the black ones. As I stood there looking at this amazing piece, I had just noticed that this painting had more layers than I cared to notice on my first encounter.

Encounter with Jackson Pollock's 'Summertime Number 9A'

I was filled with excitement as I looked at this painting. For two years I have admired Jackson Pollock’s work and have even adopted the ‘dripping technique’ within my own work, so I could barely contain myself when I got the chance to see his work in real life. My eyes kept darting back and forth between the bright blues and yellows, and along the swift, dripped marks. I got a huge sense of energy, which gave me a buzzing feeling when looking at the piece. I could almost feel the large movement in the large gestures, which made me think back to a previous piece of work that I had done myself. I connected with the movement of the piece as I had experienced the energy of making a piece using the same technique. This painting made me feel inspired and reminded me that art as much about the making of a piece as well as the finished outcome.