Notre Dame c. 1907

John Marin made "Notre Dame" with watercolor, and what grabs me first is his openness to letting the process be visible. The colors are translucent washes of gray and hints of blue, like capturing a memory of the cathedral, maybe on a rainy day. You can almost feel the water spreading across the paper. There are lines that appear like scaffolding, as if Marin is revealing the underlying structure, not just of the building, but of seeing itself. Look closely, and you'll notice the way the washes pool and bleed. This kind of unplanned effect makes the work feel alive, like a collaboration between the artist and the materials. It reminds me a bit of Turner's watercolors, that same embrace of atmosphere and the ephemeral. It shows how art is not just about rendering a subject, but about the ongoing conversation of artmaking, with all its accidents and discoveries.