Rowe, Massachusetts 1918

John Marin painted Rowe, Massachusetts with watercolor, and maybe some charcoal, in 1918. Look at how the washes of color blend and bleed, suggesting a landscape more felt than seen. The paper is raw, almost stained, and the strokes are quick, broken. See that band of blue at the top of the hill? It's not just a color, it's a feeling of coolness, of distance. The warm earth tones below, blush and sienna, give us a sense of groundedness, even as everything else seems to float. There's a tension between the solid forms and the ephemeral quality of the light and atmosphere. It’s as if he wants us to catch the landscape in a moment of fleeting perception. Marin reminds me of Arthur Dove, another American modernist who wasn't afraid to let abstraction and intuition guide his hand. Both understood that painting isn’t just about representation, but about capturing the essence of an experience. It's this kind of searching and experimentation that keeps art alive, refusing to settle for easy answers.