Stour River 1913

Frederick George Cotman made this painting of the Stour River with oil paint in, well, who knows exactly when! It's all open fields and cloudy skies, rendered in strokes of tans, greens, and blues. I imagine Cotman standing there, feeling the breeze, squinting at the light as he tries to capture the scene. You can almost see him mixing the colors on his palette, trying to get just the right shade of green for the grass or blue for the sky. Look closely, and you’ll see how the paint is applied in layers, creating a sense of depth and texture. The strokes are loose and gestural, which gives the painting a feeling of immediacy. What was he thinking as he laid down those strokes? Was he trying to capture a fleeting moment, or was he trying to convey a deeper sense of place? I think about Constable, painting in pretty much the same place around the same time, and how artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time. It's about interpretation, right? And a painting like this offers so many possibilities.