Landscape, Barra 

Samuel Peploe created this oil painting, titled "Landscape, Barra," employing a structural approach that reduces the scene to its essential forms. The composition strikes you with its bold and immediate brushstrokes. Peploe's application of paint is thick and deliberate. Look at the way the colors are laid down in discrete patches, creating a mosaic-like effect that captures the ruggedness of the Barra landscape. Notice the interplay between the cool blues and greens of the land and sky and the warmer tones of the buildings and foreground. This contrast animates the scene. Peploe engages with the formal challenges of representing space and depth, flattening the perspective in a manner reminiscent of Post-Impressionist painters such as Cézanne. This flattening emphasizes the two-dimensional nature of the canvas, reminding us that we are looking at a constructed image rather than a direct representation of reality. The painting challenges conventional notions of landscape art. It invites us to appreciate the structural integrity of the painting itself, rather than simply viewing it as a window onto the world.