God's Country 1995

Eyvind Earle's painting "God's Country" uses, I'm guessing, gouache or tempera – something that sits up on the surface, describing a stylized landscape that shimmers with light and detail. It looks so smooth you want to touch it. Look at the way he builds up the trees, like tiny broccoli florets, each one a little jewel of dark green, and how they seem to glow against the purple shadows. And the branches! They're like delicate ink drawings laid over the misty background. The lone deer there on the hill is such a simple shape, but it gives the whole scene a sense of scale and wonder. It’s as though everything is observed from above and afar, like a deity. Earle did a lot of these stylized landscapes, and you can see the influence of artists like Van Gogh and maybe even some of those early Renaissance guys. But he really made it his own, creating this unique world that's both familiar and totally dreamlike. Art isn't about answers. It's about keeping the conversation going.