In the Fields 1972

Petros Malayan made this landscape, called *In the Fields*, with watercolor. I imagine Malayan outside with his paper propped on something, the wind maybe trying to snatch it away. He squints at the light and tries to get it down, the way it makes the rocks glimmer like soft, worn teeth scattered in the grass. The colors are quiet, not shouting for attention, but kind of rumbling with earthy undertones. There's this one rock there in the middle ground, tilted just so. It is kind of daring, the way Malayan has suggested its form with those few strokes of grey wash. It makes me think about Cezanne, the way he also looked hard at nature and tried to find its underlying structure with his brush. Malayan’s definitely thinking about art history here, how to make a picture that feels both solid and fleeting, a record of seeing and feeling all at once.