Putney Bridge, London 1908

Tom Roberts made this painting of Putney Bridge in London, though the date isn’t known, and it looks like he was painting fast. The colours are really muted and soft, like they’re dissolving into each other. Looking closely, you can see how thin the paint is, almost like watercolour in places, but with these little dabs and strokes building up the clouds. There's this one orange blob down by the bridge, right? It’s so small but it just makes the whole thing zing, like a tiny spark. It reminds me a bit of Whistler, that way of capturing a mood more than a place. It feels like the kind of painting where the artist is just trying to catch a feeling, a moment, before it disappears. That’s what keeps me looking, trying to figure out what that feeling is.