Maastik majadega 1908 - 1910

Konrad Mägi made this landscape painting, "Maastik majadega," with oil paint. The approach to mark making here is so direct, like dabs of color applied without too much fuss. It’s not about blending, but about laying down colors next to each other and letting them vibrate. The surface is thick, you can almost feel the impasto. I'm drawn to the lower right, where the snowy ground dissolves into these blue and violet rivulets, it's almost like the snow itself is melting before our eyes. It reminds me of Van Gogh, that intensity of color and feeling, that directness of touch. The painting captures a transient moment, a feeling, more than a literal scene. That's what makes it so compelling, its embrace of ambiguity, that ongoing conversation between what we see and what we feel.