Deer Isle, Maine 1926

John Marin conjured this watercolor, Deer Isle, Maine, on paper, and right away you see how he’s unafraid to let the process show. The washes aren’t trying to hide themselves, the colors bleed, it’s all very present. He’s using a limited palette – blues, browns, grays – and the way he lays them down, it’s all about the gesture. Look at the bottom, at those brown shapes. Are they rocks? Land? It’s hard to say for sure, but the energy in those strokes is undeniable. Marin wasn’t trying to create a perfect picture; he was capturing a feeling, an experience. Notice how the blue grid in the top half flirts with the idea of perspective, but then dissolves back into abstraction. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Dove, another painter who wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries. What do you think? Does the piece resolve itself? Or does it float like a half-remembered dream? Maybe that’s the point.