Eastdean Road Sussex 

Editor: Here we have "Eastdean Road Sussex" by Eric Ravilious, a watercolor painting. It depicts a path winding through trees and feels incredibly delicate. What's striking to me is the artist’s process using watercolors to achieve such realism in a landscape. What's your take on this, coming from a materialist perspective? Curator: Well, considering the context of production, watercolour as a medium was accessible; it facilitated painting en plein air and therefore a certain interaction with labour that's relevant here. We’re talking about someone actively engaging with the land to produce this image. The apparent simplicity belies the complex layering of washes involved, it mirrors labour over time, wouldn't you agree? Editor: I hadn't thought about the layering like that, more in terms of capturing light. So, are you saying the choice of watercolour itself impacts the work’s meaning, more than if he’d used oils, for example? Curator: Precisely! Oil paints in that era would invoke history painting and grand portraiture. Watercolor on the other hand becomes a more common and democratic medium to engage with labour. The work isn’t simply *of* the Sussex countryside. It’s born from it, materially and contextually. How does this inform how you view Ravilious' choices here? Editor: I see what you mean now. The limitations of watercolor, the necessary directness of its application in this particular ‘realist’ style…It’s about capturing the environment as experience and as a physical object. That changes my understanding a lot. Thank you. Curator: It's all about looking at what the material reveals of its making and how it intertwines with the environment it portrays, indeed. The pleasure is mine.