Hoosic Mountain, Massachusetts 1918

John Marin’s watercolour, Hoosic Mountain, Massachusetts, is a slice of the everyday, a vision made with incredible speed and confidence. It's all about the layering of washes and the way colours bleed into each other, a real celebration of the watercolour medium. Look at the way Marin suggests the mountain range with just a few strokes of grey-green, how the paint pools at the bottom edge, creating a sense of depth and shadow. You can almost feel the dampness of the paper, the way the colours mix and mingle on the surface. It's a reminder that artmaking is a process, not just a product. I’m reminded of Cezanne, with his love of landscape and his commitment to capturing the essence of a place through colour and form, but Marin really pushes the boat out with this feeling of freedom and spontaneity. It reminds us that art is always an experiment, a way of seeing the world anew.