Drifting 2016

Rose Freymuth-Frazier made this dreamy landscape, titled Drifting, with what looks like many thin layers of oil paint. I can imagine Rose building up this image from dark to light, starting with a dark ground, before gently wiping away and adding glazes of color. The painting evokes a still and melancholic scene at dusk. The atmosphere is palpable. You can almost smell the damp earth. There’s a real softness to the brushwork. I think Rose is trying to record a sense of fleeting light – that exact moment when the sun is setting behind the horizon. I can see the influence of other painters, maybe Turner, or even Whistler, but it feels very personal. I'm sure Rose was looking at earlier painters when she was making this, just as she is in conversation with us now. It is as if she has captured light itself, and pinned it to the canvas.