Deer Isle (Birch Tree), Maine 1919

John Marin conjured this watercolor, "Deer Isle (Birch Tree), Maine," sometime in the early part of the 20th century. Marin's not trying to trick you into thinking this IS a place, instead, he's sharing his sense of a place. Look at how he jabs and stabs at the paper with those greens, like the tree itself is lunging for the sky. The paint's thin, like the memory of a landscape, not quite there, but persistent. And then, these creamy strokes pulling upwards. Are they trees? Light? It's hard to tell, isn’t it? That dark grey mass on the left, heavy and solid, anchors the whole thing. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Dove, another artist who wasn’t afraid to make nature weird, real weird. Marin isn't trying to copy what he sees. He's feeling it, and that feeling is all over the paper. Like a good poem, it hangs in the air, unresolved and full of possibility.