Riders on the Beach 1902

This is Paul Gauguin's Riders on the Beach. Look at that pink sand! I imagine Gauguin working en plein air on the beaches of Tahiti, trying to capture the colors and light of the island. I feel like I can see Gauguin experimenting with color, trying to evoke a sense of paradise, maybe even trying to find the colors that would have the same kind of feeling as paradise. Those blues and pinks and tans! The paint looks applied in thin washes, almost like a watercolor, which makes it seem fresh and immediate. Notice how the bodies of the riders are rendered with quick, gestural brushstrokes, capturing the movement and energy of the scene. I can imagine Gauguin thinking about other artists, maybe Delacroix, maybe Puvis de Chavannes, trying to push painting in a new direction, a direction that’s personal and expressive. I imagine it's this kind of ambition that drives an artist to create something new and different and to keep the conversations going, even a century later.