Adobes and Shed, New Mexico 1925

Edward Hopper, that master of mood, made this watercolor, *Adobes and Shed, New Mexico*, with washes of diluted pigment on paper. Imagine him standing there, squinting in the stark light. See how he captures the high desert, the ochre earth, and the weathered wood of the shed, with such minimal means. Look closely. The paint is thin, almost transparent in places. Those blues and purples, dragged wet-on-wet, bleed into the paper. I can almost feel the sun beating down, the dry air. That abandoned carriage is a puzzle; Hopper’s always leaving you with a question. This picture feels so Hopper, but it's also got something else, a looseness that he maybe learned from someone like John Marin. Artists are always stealing from each other, and that's okay. Painting lets you stay in that in-between place, the question more than the answer. It’s a way of looking, of feeling, of not knowing, and that’s the best part.