Windmill 1929

Emil Carlsen paints this windmill with a touch so light, it's like he's barely breathed on the canvas. The colors are muted, almost whispered, giving the whole scene a dreamlike quality. It’s all about the surface here, isn't it? Look at how the paint is applied – thin washes, scumbles, barely there, allowing the texture of the canvas to peek through. And yet, within this restraint, there's a real physicality. The tower of the mill, is built up with these gentle blues and ochres, almost translucent layers of paint. And then there's that little dab of red up near the top of the sails, like a tiny exclamation point, drawing your eye and balancing the composition. Carlsen's work reminds me a little of Whistler, in that it’s more about feeling than about pure representation, and about the endless dance between intention and accident, control and letting go.