Palms 1917

John Singer Sargent painted these palms with watercolors, and you can really see him working through the process. It's all about capturing a fleeting moment, like a visual diary entry. Look at how he's layered the blues and greens, letting them bleed into each other. It's not about precision; it's about atmosphere. You can almost feel the humidity in the air. Watercolor can be unforgiving, it dries so quickly, yet here the strokes are so light, so perfectly capturing the trunks of the palms against the lush canopy. Sargent was a master of suggestion. I think of someone like Fairfield Porter, who took the Impressionist interest in light and space and put it through this very American filter. Both understood that a painting is never truly finished, it remains a record of its own making, an ongoing conversation with the world. The palms could be anywhere and everywhere, memories of another life.