Sunglare, Alaska 1919

Rockwell Kent made "Sunglare, Alaska" without a known date using paint, and look how he did it! The colour palette feels cool, glacial even, but the sun is there, so there's this amazing feeling of warmth, too. The material aspect of this work is what really does it for me. The surface is smooth, almost like glass, and the paint is so thin and transparent. It’s possible to see what looks like multiple layers of paint. But the way that he’s managed to capture the glare, that shimmer on the water, wow. He invites you to focus there and feel the sun on your face. Kent’s work reminds me of Edward Hopper, though perhaps a little more optimistic. Both artists capture something about the human condition, a sense of isolation and wonder. Art like this reminds us that it's okay to embrace ambiguity and that there are always multiple ways of seeing the world.