Thunersee 1931

Cuno Amiet made this landscape with paint, probably on location. I can just imagine Amiet outside, painting, looking, squinting. The paint feels wet and washy, almost like watercolor, laid down in broad strokes of blues and greens and greys. There’s something so straightforward about this landscape; it is what it is. Look at the horizon line made up of red dashes. Did he begin by painting the sky and then move downwards? What was on his mind as he built this scene? The brushstrokes are visible, almost nonchalant, but they accumulate a kind of shimmering atmosphere. He makes it look simple, but that’s what painting is, an artist building up a picture of a scene, a feeling, a world. And, as painters, we're all in this conversation with each other, finding our own ways to capture these fleeting moments, to pin them down with a brushstroke.