Bos, met berken op de voorgrond before 1903

This is a small image of a forest, made by Alfred Schneider. There's something about the way the trees are rendered as stripes that makes me think about the process of looking. See the way the paint is applied, not trying to trick you into thinking it's a real forest, but instead showing you how it was made, layer by layer. The texture isn't concealed; the artist is revealing his hand to you. It’s very grey, in a way that’s interesting, not depressing. That dark area up top feels so solid, yet the rest of the image dissolves into this hazy ground. This focus on mark-making reminds me of the early abstract expressionists, or maybe even some of the German painters like Gerhard Richter. They were all trying to figure out how to paint what they felt, not just what they saw. Anyway, it leaves you with a sense of mystery and ambiguity. Which is really what good art is all about, right?