Partridge in Flight, Deer Isle 1926

John Marin made this watercolour called Partridge in Flight, Deer Isle, sometime in the early part of the 20th century. It’s so fresh and loose, you can see every brushstroke as part of the process, like a visual record of a fleeting moment. Marin's colours are watery and translucent, like light filtering through the Maine mist. Look at how the brown of the bird is echoed in other patches of the composition. It’s as though the whole scene is responding to the bird in flight. The texture of the paper peeks through the washes, reminding you that it's all just fragile material, pigment on paper, resisting the urge to become a perfect illusion. I’m reminded of Arthur Dove, another artist who found endless inspiration in the American landscape, turning observed reality into personal abstraction. And like Dove, Marin’s not trying to give you a definitive picture; he's offering you a feeling, a suggestion, a question.