Clouds 1910 - 1912

Eero Järnefelt made this study, Clouds, with pastels, maybe outside, looking up. I love imagining him quickly trying to capture those fleeting atmospheric shapes. Look how the marks build up – blues and purples scribbled, smudged, and layered. You can almost feel the softness of the pastel meeting the textured paper. There’s a kind of wrestling match happening here, between observation and expression. Did he squint his eyes and capture the essence of the cloud? The cool palette is so evocative. The light, airy strokes remind me a bit of Whistler’s tonalist landscapes, but with an earthier, more grounded feel. Artists are always looking at and learning from each other, aren't they? And they use whatever is at hand – in this case, pastels – to try to get at the slippery, ever-changing beauty of the world. It's a conversation that continues to this day.