Blue Trees 1915 - 1916

Henry Lyman Saÿen made ‘Blue Trees’ with paint on canvas. The way the colours are laid on, sort of flat, but not really, reminds me of how I approach a canvas. I don’t want to overwork it, you know? There’s an honesty to leaving the marks as they are, letting the process show. Look at the dark blue that slices through the foreground. It’s almost a shadow, but it's too vivid, too present to be just that. The paint is thick enough that you can almost feel the drag of the brush, the quick flicks to the right. There’s a looseness here. It’s like Saÿen is saying, “Here’s what I saw, here’s how I felt, take it or leave it.” It reminds me a bit of Marsden Hartley, that same boldness, that willingness to just go for it. These are the kind of paintings that remind you that art is a conversation, one that never really ends.