Strolling in Toledo 

John Michael Carter's "Strolling in Toledo" is made with traditional oil paints, applied with loose brushwork on what is likely a prepared canvas. The texture is key here. Note how the thick, visible brushstrokes create a sense of immediacy. Carter isn’t trying to hide the way the painting was made, but rather celebrates the materiality of paint. This emphasis on material also reflects back on the image itself: consider how the uneven paving stones and rough brickwork, the ancient architecture of Toledo, are all rendered with the same frank application of pigment. Consider how many millions of such strokes have been applied to canvas over centuries, by artists committed to understanding their world through the mediation of material. Carter engages with this long history, and in doing so, invites us to appreciate painting not only as an image, but as a physical thing, born from the hand.