A February Morning, East Knoyle, Wiltshire 1918

Lucien Pissarro’s ‘A February Morning, East Knoyle, Wiltshire’ is, as the title suggests, a landscape painting made on location, likely in oil paint. Pissarro's dabs of color are so alive! Look at how he builds up the image with these little strokes; it's like he's not just painting what he sees but also the air, the light, the feeling of a cold morning. Notice the trees, how they reach into the sky. Each branch is defined but also part of the overall scene. The buildings are solid, but softened by the atmosphere. The painting isn't trying to hide its process. You can almost feel the brush moving across the canvas. It reminds me of Cezanne, who also used painting as a way to explore space, structure, and perception. But Pissarro brings his own sensitivity to it. I imagine Pissarro standing in that field on a cold February morning, trying to capture a fleeting moment, to fix it into something permanent. Isn't that what all us painters are trying to do?