Looking into Beryl Pool 1912

Childe Hassam made this watercolour, Looking into Beryl Pool, with a clear love for the way light can play on rock and water. There’s a directness in his marks, a confidence in each brushstroke that reminds me that artmaking is often about daring to put something down, to commit to a gesture, even if it feels provisional. Look closely, and you can almost feel the wetness of the brush as it moved across the paper, the way the pigment blooms and settles. The rocks are built up of these transparent layers, a simple technique really, but look how much depth it gives! The dark pool feels alive, reflecting all that colour back at us. It reminds me of those moments when you’re standing by a body of water, and you realize that what you’re seeing isn’t just the water itself, but a whole world reflected back at you. Hassam worked at the same time as artists like Homer, so perhaps we can see this as a little nod to that artist's coastal scenes.