Palestine 1906

John Singer Sargent made this painting, Palestine, with oil on canvas. It's all about that ochre-y, earthy palette, a dance between browns and yellows, laid down with these confident, visible brushstrokes that just scream ‘process.’ I love how the paint is worked – not too thick, not too thin, but just right to catch the light and create a sense of texture. Look at the lower right, that cluster of rocks, see how each dab of paint is almost a little sculpture? It’s like Sargent is building the landscape right before our eyes, one loaded brushstroke at a time. It’s like he’s in conversation with artists like Gustave Courbet, who also saw the beauty in the everyday landscape. In the end, it's not about perfect representation, but about capturing a feeling, an atmosphere, an experience. Art is an ongoing conversation, a back-and-forth across time, and it's never really finished.