Lost Patrol 1984

Robert McGinnis’ “Lost Patrol” is a painting of landscape and figure, layered in washes and glazes of browns, reds, and blues. I imagine McGinnis out there in the blazing heat. He squints in the sun, trying to capture this epic landscape, and a figure atop a horse. He's got to put the horse in, right? How else can you show the scale of the American West? I sympathize with the artist, and the technical problem he must have faced trying to paint that distance in a way that still feels intimate. The paint looks thin here, stained into the canvas, and the way he thins it out suggests endlessness, like the desert air itself. Look at the way he renders the rockface, tilting and shifting, like a cubist landscape. He doesn't give it all away but leaves space for our imagination to wander across the plains. It reminds me of a Marsden Hartley landscape, or maybe even a de Kooning--not abstract per se, but definitely alive with feeling. And look at the brushstrokes, how they mimic the textures of the rock, like the artist is trying to become one with the land. Ultimately, “Lost Patrol” embraces a sense of wonder and mystery. It reflects the idea that the best art is in conversation with the world around us, and with each other.