Point Lobos, Monterey, California 1912

Thomas Moran made this painting, *Point Lobos, Monterey, California,* with oil on canvas; he’s really going for it, wrestling with something. The paint is worked up, thick in places, especially where the waves crash against the rocks. You can almost feel the spray. I imagine Moran standing there, squinting at the light, trying to capture the churning sea and the craggy coastline. I bet he had to work fast, with the weather changing so rapidly. The painting has got that Hudson River School vibe, but it's also got something else, a kind of raw energy. It reminds me a bit of Courbet, but with a distinctly American sensibility. There’s this one spot, right where the sunlight hits the rocks, that just sings. It’s like he’s trying to pin down the fleeting moment, the way light transforms everything it touches. We, as painters, are always in conversation, always riffing on each other's ideas, trying to make sense of the world through paint.