The Wood Sawyer 1906

Frederick McCubbin painted "The Wood Sawyer" with what looks like oil on canvas, and it really dives into the act of making. The brushstrokes here aren't trying to hide; they're out in the open, kind of like the wood sawyer himself, out in the bush doing his work. You can see how McCubbin layered the paint to build up this scene, especially in the rough texture of the log and the surrounding foliage. It makes you feel like you're right there, smelling the sawdust. I keep coming back to the color. It's not just brown and green, it's about how the light hits those colors and transforms them. Think of it as a cousin to Van Gogh’s landscapes, where the everyday becomes something vivid and deeply felt. It’s like McCubbin is asking, “What does it mean to really see the labor and the land?” And maybe, how does making art mirror the physical work of shaping the world around us?