Maison dans la Campagne 1982

Bernard Buffet made "Maison dans la Campagne" using oil on canvas, and just look at the urgency in those marks! The paint application is direct, with lines quickly defining the form of the house. There is minimal blending of the colours; it's all about decisive strokes. I find the red and white posts at the entrance so striking; they feel playful against the subdued tones of the rest of the painting. The paint looks quite thin, almost staining the canvas, which gives it a certain rawness. It feels like he's capturing a memory rather than a precise image, right? Buffet’s style reminds me a bit of Francis Gruber. Both artists used stark lines and a limited palette to convey a sense of alienation. But where Gruber often depicted figures, Buffet turns his gaze to architecture, making the buildings themselves seem isolated and vulnerable. For Buffet, the process itself seems like the point, and that the paintings is a record of the artist thinking.