Landscape with Trees 1902

Editor: So, here we have Denman Waldo Ross's *Landscape with Trees*. It's an oil on canvas, painted, it seems, in the summer of 1902. The brushstrokes are so visible! What strikes you about his process here? Curator: I notice the rapid, almost gestural application of paint. Ross wasn't obscuring the materiality of his medium. The visible brushstrokes and the layering suggest a focus on the act of painting itself, foregrounding the labor and material reality of art production. Editor: Right! So he's almost showing us the 'making of' the painting, rather than a polished illusion. Curator: Precisely. We're invited to consider the conditions of its creation, the artist's hand, the textures of the paint – all speaking to the physical realities behind the image. Editor: That's fascinating! I hadn't considered the work that way. Curator: Considering art through its materials and making can reveal a lot about its place in the world.