Sunday Morning, Appledore 1912

Childe Hassam made this watercolour sketch called 'Sunday Morning, Appledore' with breezy washes and a playful lightness of touch. You can almost feel him there, squinting in the bright light, dabbing at the paper with his brush. I imagine him thinking, how can I capture the glint of the sun on the water, the rough texture of the rocks, the way the path winds invitingly towards the horizon? He's not trying to be precise, it's more about the feeling of being there on that Sunday morning, a fleeting moment caught in time. Look how the watery blues and greens blend together, like a memory half-formed, yet still vivid and alive. Hassam was part of a generation of painters who were obsessed with light and atmosphere, trying to capture the ephemeral beauty of the world around them. It reminds me of some of the early Impressionist painters, like Monet or Renoir, who were also trying to capture the fleeting moments of everyday life. This reminds us that painting is a way of seeing, a way of thinking, and a way of being in the world, it is an ongoing dialogue between artists across time.