Rocky Landscape 1914

August Macke made this watercolor painting, Rocky Landscape, with broad strokes and light washes of color. I wonder if Macke stood outside, squinting into the sun, trying to capture the way light transforms solid forms into shimmering planes. It's like he’s feeling his way through the landscape, translating its solidity into delicate, translucent shapes. Look at how he uses blue and green to suggest depth and shadow, giving the rocks and trees a kind of weightless presence. Macke, like many of us painters, seems to be caught between observation and invention. The structures are not quite like buildings and more like geometric hallucinations—it's like he's showing us not just what he sees, but how he feels seeing it. The way he uses these geometric shapes makes me think about Cezanne, but with a lighter, more playful touch. Painting is like having a conversation across time; we are all trying to figure out how to translate the world onto a flat surface, and I think that Macke did a pretty great job!