Sand Springs Butte 1904

Childe Hassam made this painting, Sand Springs Butte, with oils on what looks like a square canvas. He’s put down heaps of paint, really thick—you can see the strokes. Imagine him outside with his easel, squinting at the sun, trying to capture the scene. Look at those clouds! The way he’s dabbed at the canvas with blues and whites, they almost feel like they’re moving. Then there’s the mountain – this big, earthy presence looming over the landscape. I wonder if he felt small standing there, trying to capture something so massive. He’s got this field of yellow flowers in the foreground, all these little impasto marks. It’s like he’s translated this whole landscape into pure, joyful color. It makes me think about other painters who were obsessed with light and color, like Monet, but Hassam is doing his own thing. Painting is like a conversation, right? Artists talking to each other across time. We pick up where others leave off, messing around, trying to make sense of the world with brushes and colors.