Don Quixote 2000

Scott Gustafson’s Don Quixote is a figurative painting with soft coloring. You get the feeling he’s been pushing the paint around, building up these subtle color variations in the sky. I’m thinking about the artist in their studio. They’re trying to find that perfect balance between detail and overall feel. I see Gustafson layering the paint, glazing it almost, to give this incredible luminosity to the windmills and the figures. Look at the way the light catches Don Quixote's armor, or the soft shadows under the donkey. There is a sense of careful observation, but also imagination. Gustafson’s clearly looking at illustrators like N.C. Wyeth, but I think the work also speaks to something more timeless about storytelling in painting. It feels like a conversation about how we see the world and how we represent it, each artist adding something new, but always in relation to what’s come before.