Summer Idyll 1976

Will Barnet made this print, Summer Idyll, with flat colours, and hard edges. It’s interesting how he gets that kind of woodblock effect without the woodblock, right? I love how he uses the colour palette here to create a quiet, thoughtful scene. The painting is very flat, but he uses the colour to create a sense of depth and shadow. Notice how the dark greens of the trees in the foreground contrast with the lighter colours of the background, and that blue hint of sea. Then there’s the figure in the hammock, so still and relaxed, framed by the geometry of the hammock and the vertical trunks of the trees. Barnet has a real interest in depicting the everyday moments of life, and I’m thinking of other artists like Fairfield Porter, who found profundity in domesticity. There's an invitation here to just slow down, and be still for a moment. What does it mean to see things differently?