The Door Step c. 1940s

Andrew Wyeth made this watercolour called The Door Step, and I can just imagine him outside, with the wind in his hair, trying to capture this landscape in shades of grey, brown and white. There's a stillness to this painting, a sense of quiet observation. I'm thinking about the way Wyeth has built up the layers of translucent paint, one over the other, creating a sense of depth and atmosphere. The colours are muted, earthy. There's a subtle dance between abstraction and representation, with forms emerging from and dissolving back into the wash of the paint. Those vertical marks over the gray sky suggest the wooden slats of the titular doorstep, while blades of grass reach up, creating visual tension with the flat horizon line. In that one ghostly white form in the foreground, I see references to the work of other painters, from Winslow Homer to Edward Hopper, who have explored similar themes of longing and isolation in their work. It’s all about the exchange of ideas across time, each artist adding their own unique voice to the conversation.