From Granada 1926

Walter Gramatté made this watercolor, From Granada, at some point in his short life. There's something kind of casual about the way the paint's been applied, like he's just letting it do its thing. You can almost feel the water moving the pigment around on the page. I love the way the blue washes over everything, connecting the sky with the road. The whole scene feels a bit dreamlike, like a memory fading at the edges. The buildings are kind of blocky and simplified, which gives the painting a naive quality. There's a little stroke of pink peeking out from under the doorway. It’s a small thing, but it adds this spark of warmth to the cool blue tones. Gramatté’s work reminds me a little of Paul Klee. Both had this knack for simplifying forms and using color in such an evocative way. In the end, art's about seeing the world in new ways, about trying to capture something that words just can't quite express.