Winter Oak 1999

Eyvind Earle's "Winter Oak" captures a landscape distilled to its essence, probably with gouache or tempera. The palette is tight, mostly blacks, grays and whites, punctuated with dabs of yellow and red, so precise you could cut your finger on them. It's a study in contrasts, where nature is reduced to bold, graphic shapes. I’m drawn to the way Earle handles the texture of the tree bark. See how the jagged edges of the dark paint meet the smooth grays, creating this push and pull between roughness and serenity? Look at the tiny yellow lines near the top of the oak, like an afterthought, or a memory. These create a beautiful counterpoint to the starkness of the scene. Earle's art reminds me a little of Charles Burchfield's visionary landscapes, they both suggest something mystical about the everyday. It’s not just about what you see, but how you feel it, that’s what lingers.