Le Trayas, Paysage du Midi 1914

Armand Guillaumin made this landscape with pastels, capturing a scene with a tree clinging to the red rocks by the sea. I imagine Guillaumin standing there, probably squinting in the Mediterranean light, making short, feathery marks with his pastels to build up the image bit by bit. The colors are so evocative: the cool blues of the water playing against the warm, earthy reds of the rocks, and that scraggly tree rendered in strokes of emerald and teal. It's like he’s trying to capture the feeling of the place, rather than a perfect representation. There's a freedom in the marks, a sense of immediacy, as if he’s trying to bottle the light. It reminds me a little of Cezanne, who was also interested in the way we see. Artists are constantly building on each other's visions, like an ongoing conversation. Ultimately, it makes me think about how painting is a way of thinking and feeling, a really open-ended form of expression.