Cliffs at Fecamp 1902

Gustave Loiseau made this landscape, Cliffs at Fecamp, with oil on canvas, and it is just delicious. Look at the broken strokes, each one a little stab of color, the overall feeling is of a gray day, but the way it's made is so vibrant. For me, artmaking is a process, it's about laying down one color, then another, seeing how they react. Here, you can see the physical act of painting, a surface built up from tiny marks. The texture is rough, almost scratchy, which gives the scene a certain honesty. I love the way he captures the light, especially how the sea reflects the sky. See that little patch of white where the waves hit the rocks? It's so simple, but it brings the whole painting to life. Loiseau was part of the Post-Impressionist movement, and you can see the influence of artists like Camille Pissarro in his work, a similar interest in capturing the everyday, and a similar way of building up an image from individual marks. Art is an ongoing conversation.