Gray Mist 1987

Eyvind Earle must have used gouache or tempera to create this landscape, which is layered in a way that gives the effect of looking through a veil of mist. I wonder if Earle was thinking about Chinese landscape painting when he made this work. The palette is simple—almost monochromatic—with just a few muted grays and blues. Look at how those branches creep into the frame. It’s such a melancholic gesture. And that mist! Maybe Earle was trying to capture a feeling more than a place, and that feeling is of in-between-ness, a liminal space. There’s a sense of quiet mystery, a hidden world waiting to be discovered. He shares something in common with other painters too, like with the tonalism of Whistler, or even Agnes Martin's subtle atmospheric washes. It’s like all us painters are eavesdropping on each other across time.