Mill on the River 1906

Paul Cézanne made this painting of a Mill on the River using oil on canvas. It’s all about these brushy, blocky strokes of color, right? You can almost feel him figuring out how to build the scene, piece by piece. I love how he’s not trying to hide the process. The paint is thin in places, like he's letting the canvas breathe. But then, look at the way he stacks those blues and greens in the trees, or the careful white outlines of the mill itself. It’s not just about what he's painting, but about how he's painting it. It’s like he’s asking, “How do we really see something?” This approach makes me think of someone like Phillip Guston, later on. That same idea of building form through color and gesture, not worrying too much about being “correct,” but getting at something deeper. Cézanne’s showing us that painting isn’t about perfection, it’s about the messy, beautiful act of trying to understand the world.