Mill in the evening 1905

Piet Mondrian created this painting of a Mill in the evening using oil on canvas. It’s full of these blended, almost blurry brushstrokes in a limited range of earth tones. You can tell Mondrian was really interested in the process of building up this scene, layer by layer. What's striking is the way the paint is applied so softly, particularly in the sky where the colors seem to melt into one another. This creates this hazy, dreamy atmosphere. Then, look at the way he’s rendered the reflections on the water. Notice how he uses little dabs and dashes of paint, capturing the way light flickers on the surface? That little area, right there, feels like a painting within a painting! The mood reminds me of James McNeill Whistler's nocturnes, where everything kind of dissolves into the atmosphere. I always find it fascinating to see how artists engage in an ongoing dialogue with each other. You know, art’s always evolving, and it’s never really finished, is it?