Morgonsol 2017

Nick Alm, born in 1985, painted this scene with oils, capturing a figure bathed in morning light. I can imagine Alm layering thin glazes of paint, building up the luminosity, especially in that rectangle of sunlight. The colour palette is pretty muted – greys and creams – which makes the light even more intense. I bet he was thinking about Vermeer, and how light can transform an ordinary scene into something transcendent. Look at the way he renders the hands shielding the eyes; that gesture communicates a vulnerability, a resistance to the harshness of the new day. I think of Fairfield Porter and his domestic interiors that find poetry in everyday life.