East Friendship, Maine c. 1945

Andrew Wyeth made this painting in Maine, and you can almost feel the cold wind coming off the sea. The sky is low and heavy with cloud. I imagine Wyeth standing outside the house, his paper propped on a board, and dabbing at the surface, trying to capture the light as it shifts across the clapboard. His watercolour strokes are so direct and transparent. Look at the blue of that window! It sings against the muted tones of the landscape. It’s so simple but evocative, capturing the essence of this place. You can see he knew how to let the white of the paper do a lot of the work for him too. Like in a Cy Twombly! It’s these quiet, understated moments that make you want to look closer and linger. It reminds me that painting is a way of seeing and feeling, more than just recording a scene. Other painters like Hopper were interested in how we relate to landscape, and I feel Wyeth is talking to them too.