Carrying Place Head (Casco Bay), Maine c. 1914

John Marin made this luminous watercolour, Carrying Place Head (Casco Bay), Maine, by carrying his paper and paints en plein air, out into the landscape. Marin’s loose brushstrokes and watery washes capture the essence of the Maine coast with a dynamic energy, and I can imagine him balancing precariously on the rocks, squinting against the salty wind! Look at the way he’s built up the image, layer by layer, with each brushstroke adding to the overall impression of light and movement. Those zig-zagging lines could be the wind on the water, or the jagged edges of the rocks. The earthy yellows and browns anchor the composition while soft blues and greens give it an ethereal, dreamlike quality. Marin, like many modern painters, was trying to find new ways of seeing and representing the world, turning to watercolour for its immediacy and fluidity. He, in turn, would have looked at J.M.W Turner’s watercolours, amongst others. In the end, we are all in conversation, across time. His work reminds us that painting is about process, exploration, and, above all, feeling.