Brookside 1919

Bertalan Pór made this painting of a Brookside with what looks like oil paint, and a pretty bold hand. I think that's a fair summary, right? It's got all this great texture, you can see exactly where he put down each brushstroke, like little pats of colour all snuggling up next to each other to describe the light and the way the landscape sits together. Look at that bank of grass to the right, you can practically feel the way the bristles have dragged through the paint. There's something about the way that those stark, bare trees are cutting across the bright sky that reminds me of Emil Nolde, though his work is often darker in tone, Por’s marks have a playful quality, almost childlike, that Nolde doesn’t share so much. Both artists seem to say, let's not worry about detail, let's think about the feeling. And what could be better than that?