Near Pontoise 1901

Gustave Loiseau made "Near Pontoise" with oil paint, layering up the color in these staccato marks that feel like a blizzard of feeling. Look closely, you can see how Loiseau builds up this landscape with short, choppy strokes. There's a real materiality to the paint, it is quite opaque. Up close, each dab is distinct, but from a distance, they blend into this blurry, dreamlike vision. I love the way he captures the weight of the snow, not just on the ground, but clinging to the branches, blurring the edges of everything, dissolving the hard lines. It reminds me a little of Sisley, with that similar interest in capturing the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. But Loiseau has his own voice, his own way of making the ordinary feel extraordinary. For Loiseau, like many great painters, the process is about seeing, feeling, and finding a way to make paint do more than just represent.