Morning at Laguna 1935

Charles Reiffel made this painting, Morning at Laguna, with visible brushstrokes dancing across the canvas, capturing the light and movement of a coastal scene. I like to imagine Reiffel standing there, trying to make sense of this view and what he saw in front of him, squinting into the light. It's a dance between what's there and what’s in your head, a back and forth – the real, tangible thing, and the sensation of the ocean. The paint is laid on pretty thick here and those strokes do so much work. They give us a sense of the wind, the spray of the waves, the solidity of the rocks, and that hazy light that bounces off the water. The guy has captured a very specific thing, a moment of lived experience, of really being out there, in the world. Like those Impressionists in France, but this guy's got his own take on it. You can see the conversations happening between painters across time, each one pushing and pulling, responding to what came before, finding new ways to express something about being alive.