Blue Pine 1980

Eyvind Earle made this painting, Blue Pine, with what looks like smooth, controlled brushstrokes and a deep, saturated palette. The texture here is all about the surface, which is slick, and kind of dreamlike. It’s almost as if the tree is glowing from within. Look at the way he uses blue: it’s not just one blue, but a whole range, from the darkest indigo in the shadows to the bright, almost electric blues that highlight the edges of the trunk. The light feels like it’s coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. The trunk is built from dark shadows with thin white highlights which give it depth but are also obviously stylized. Earle’s pine reminds me of Klimt’s decorative landscapes or maybe even some of those early modernist set designs. It’s a painting that’s not afraid to be beautiful, and in its own way, that's pretty radical.