Waldlandschaft 1923

Otto Mueller made this painting, *Waldlandschaft*, with tempera on canvas. The palette here is so green it makes me want to dive right in! Just standing in the forest, breathing in the woodsy, earthy smell, looking up through the boughs. I wonder what Mueller was thinking when he made this? Painting a forest scene seems so simple, but it's really about arranging everything, deciding what to leave in, what to leave out. There's something so satisfying about the way he's rendered the crisscrossing of the tree trunks, like he's making up his own architecture as he goes along. He's not slavishly copying nature. He's building the painting, layering the green and the blue with these expressive marks. It's like he's in conversation with other artists, riffing on their ideas, adding his own twist. And when we look at it, we get to join in that conversation, too. Painting is a journey without a fixed destination, a constant exploration of possibilities.