San Pedro Harbor 1901

Granville Redmond made this painting of San Pedro Harbor with oil on canvas, and it’s like a hazy dream. The whole thing is built up from these scrubby brushstrokes, a limited palette, almost monochromatic, like he’s trying to catch the light just as it kisses the water. Looking closely, you can almost feel the texture of the paint, especially in the sky. Redmond doesn’t hide the process; it’s all right there on the surface. The physical stuff of the paint becomes part of the picture, giving the scene this tangible, almost melancholic feeling. Take those masts, for instance, they are not just lines, but physical strokes that reach upwards. Redmond was deaf from a young age, and you wonder if his sensitivity to texture and light might have been heightened because of it. He reminds me a bit of James McNeill Whistler, in that he's chasing a certain mood, a tonal harmony rather than a literal depiction. It makes you think about how we perceive the world, and how art can be a way of making sense of the intangible.