Blue Barn and Snow 1976

Eyvind Earle's "Blue Barn and Snow" gives us graphic shapes and blocks of colour that are almost like paper cutouts, building up a striking winter scene. The texture is smooth, almost airless. The whole image is built from lines; the vertical grooves of the barn walls, the swooping curve of the tree’s branches, even the delicate bare saplings are rendered as fine lines. It is as if the whole image has been built through a process of considered mark making, each colour carefully placed. Look at the upper branches of the main tree; how the black of the trunk meets the snow, creating these abstract shapes that feel almost accidental but are so perfectly placed. Earle’s approach reminds me of someone like Agnes Martin, in the sense of distilling an image down to its most essential elements. It's a very specific way of seeing the world, and it invites us to do the same. It suggests that even the most familiar scenes can be broken down into forms and colours, ready for us to reassemble in our own way.