To Prince Edward Island 1965

Alex Colville made this painting of a woman looking through binoculars, maybe in egg tempera – who knows? He was really into that clean, clear way of painting. There's something eerie about it, like a still from a movie. It’s super controlled, but the feeling is totally unsettling. Look at the way the colors are muted, almost bleached out, especially in the woman's skin and hair. It's like she's fading into the background, or maybe she's a ghost already. Then there are those super crisp, precise lines of the boat, the railing, the binoculars. They're so sharp, they almost hurt. It's like Colville is trying to freeze a moment in time, but the moment is slipping away anyway. Those black circles of the binoculars seem to suck all the emotion out of the image. It's very Hopper, but more tense. Colville reminds me a bit of Magritte, that same surreal, dreamlike quality, but with a darker, more anxious edge.