This powerful expressionist work by John Kinnear, titled The Friday Men, erupts with colour and movement, presenting a dynamic, almost explosive gathering of figures set against a blazing orange sky. Kinnear’s vigorous palette-knife technique gives the scene its unmistakable energy: thick, sweeping strokes of red, yellow, blue, black, and white collide and overlap, creating a sense of urgent camaraderie and purposeful motion.

The central figures—suggestive of musicians, labourers, or a close-knit working crew—are formed from bold slabs of impasto, their bodies implied rather than detailed. Their tools or instruments, rendered in long vertical strokes of white and crimson, rise like rhythmic accents within the composition. Patches of cobalt and ultramarine punctuate the fiery palette, introducing moments of cool contrast amid the heat.

The background glows with intense orange and amber, evoking sunset, stage lights, or the emotional warmth associated with fellowship and shared ritual. Though abstracted, the group’s posture and clustering suggest unity and tradition—an assembled brotherhood captured in a moment of high vitality.

Kinnear’s signature style—raw, tactile, and fearless in its colour contrasts—turns The Friday Men into a celebration of human connection, painted with the immediacy and force of lived experience.