Icelandic Horse with Blonde Mane 1985

Louisa Matthiasdottir has rendered this Icelandic horse, with what looks like fairly thin paint, allowing the colour to do all the work! The artist has painted a scene where a tan horse is set against an intense green pasture, ocean, and mountain backdrop. You can feel the Icelandic light in this painting, which makes me think about the paintings of Fairfield Porter. The painting feels both descriptive and imaginative; the horse, abstracted with planar forms, looks like it's made from cut paper. The artist's bold composition and confident brushstrokes really shine through. I can imagine Matthiasdottir making small studies and sketches, and then painting this from memory and feeling. The texture is smooth and unified, and the simplified colour palette is reminiscent of Milton Avery. These artists, along with Matthiasdottir, are constantly in conversation across time. Each of them inspires new ways of thinking about light, form, and expression in my own work.