Nature Symbolized 1911

Arthur Dove made this painting, titled 'Nature Symbolized,' at an unknown date, probably with oil on canvas. You know, the great thing about painting is that it's all about the stuff, the material, the goo. Look at the way he's laid down these colors, they are earthy, ochre, dark and mossy green. It makes me want to run my hands across the canvas to feel the textures. The paint isn't thick, more like stained, but still, you can see the brushstrokes. I'm drawn to the spiraling black forms that seem to be reaching out, searching. Dove isn't trying to give us a clear picture; it's more like he's tuned into the vibrations of nature, that kind of natural, flowing rhythm. He gets the interiority of nature, its secret language. Dove’s work sits alongside that of Marsden Hartley, both interested in the dialogue between abstraction and representation, but both with their own particular take on nature. What do you think?