Looking Toward Mrs. Tay 1943

Milton Avery made this little drawing, "Looking Toward Mrs. Tay," with what looks like graphite on paper. Isn't it cool how he captures so much with so little? It's like he's thinking through the landscape, making marks as a way of feeling the space out. There's this really interesting layering happening, the horizontal lines across the page give the impression of depth, like the space between the viewer and those distant hills is filled with stuff. Then you have these darker, more concentrated marks clustered at the bottom and right of the page, pulling the eye down and acting as framing devices. It makes me think of Bonnard, who was also really good at capturing light. It's a reminder that art isn't just about what you see, but about how you see and what you decide to leave out. That’s where the magic happens.