Smelt Brook Falls 1937

Marsden Hartley made this painting of Smelt Brook Falls with oil paint on canvas, and you can just feel his process. It’s right there in the thick, juicy strokes. The colors are earthy, like burnt sienna and raw umber, but then BAM! those stark whites of the water, like someone cranked up the volume. Hartley isn’t trying to trick us into thinking this is real. Instead, he uses the paint, the texture, the very surface of the canvas to shout: "Look at this thing I’m making!” See that big, chunky tree trunk on the right? It’s not just a tree; it's a bold, almost abstract shape that holds the whole composition together. Hartley was always searching, trying out different styles, and there’s something about this painting that reminds me of Guston, that same willingness to be awkward, to embrace the messy, unresolved feeling of life itself. It’s not about perfection, it’s about the energy of the moment, the ongoing conversation that is art.