Rantakallioita 1905

A.W. Finch painted this landscape, *Rantakallioita*, with oils in 1905, and it feels like a study in seeing, or maybe a study in lilac! Look at the way he's daubed the paint, building up the forms with these short, choppy strokes. It's like he's trying to capture not just the look of the rocks and the sea, but the very act of perceiving them. The texture is so present, you can almost feel the grit of the rocks under your feet and the cool spray of the water. And that winding purple path, snaking its way through the foreground! It’s so clearly a stroke of pure invention. It doesn't seem to 'go' anywhere, but it brings movement into the piece, a little jolt of dynamism to what could have been quite a static scene. Finch was working around the same time as Vuillard, they were both experimenting with colour in similar ways. But Finch is rougher, somehow, more immediate. I like the way his commitment to process is so visible in the finished work, it reminds me that art is always a journey.