Cliffs and Sea, Appeldore 1903

Childe Hassam made this watercolour painting of sea cliffs using strokes of blue and brown. Look at how the colours bleed and merge – you can almost feel the dampness in the air. Imagine Hassam standing there, right at the edge, trying to capture the way the water moves, the light shifts. I think of Winslow Homer trying to do the same thing. The paint is thin, washy, like the sea. See how the brushstrokes give a feeling of constant motion, a dance between the solid rocks and the fluid water? Each stroke builds on the last, kind of like how memory works – layering, erasing, and finding something new in the process. Painters like Hassam, like me, we’re all in conversation, trying to make sense of what we see and feel, and trying to find the best way to show it to the world.