Sweetheart Abbey 1928

Samuel Peploe made this painting of Sweetheart Abbey with oil on canvas, but its date remains a mystery. I love the way the brushstrokes are so visible, like little dashes and commas of color, building up the image piece by piece. Look how the green of the trees isn't just one green, but a mix of blues, yellows, and even a bit of white, making it feel alive and shimmering. The paint is applied pretty thickly, giving everything a real sense of texture and depth. Focusing on the lower left, you can see how the shadows are rendered with these cool, dark blues and purples, creating a kind of graphic geometry that cuts across the softer greens. It's like Peploe is not just showing us the landscape, but also how he sees it, how he feels it. This way of building up an image, piece by piece, reminds me a little of Cezanne, who was always trying to capture the underlying structure of things through color and form. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, with artists learning from and responding to each other across time.