Cefn Bryn, Gower 1933

Lucien Pissarro made this landscape, Cefn Bryn, Gower, with oil on canvas using short flicks of colour to build form. Look at the way the cool blues and greens dance with the warmer yellows and browns; you can almost feel the sun flickering across the hills! I can imagine Pissarro, setting up his easel en plein air, trying to capture the fleeting light. What a struggle, right? To pin down the ephemeral! The texture here, built up with so many little strokes, makes me think of Seurat, but looser, warmer. I love how Pissarro’s mark-making builds up the volume and gives a real sense of place. It’s like he’s not just painting what he sees, but also how it feels to be there. It reminds me that we’re all in this conversation, you know, looking, thinking, painting.