Sea and Rocky Shore 1948

Milton Avery’s watercolor, Sea and Rocky Shore, is made up of these amazing simple washes and marks. You can really see him thinking through the making of the piece. It’s so translucent, so light; the colors are pale, like he thinned them down, maybe even with a little seawater. I can almost feel Avery making this! I imagine him, squinting in the sun, trying to capture the essence of the place with quick, intuitive gestures, just trying to keep up. Look at those horizontals. They really hold it together, don't they? They pull the various abstract shapes into something that feels like a landscape. Avery influenced a whole generation of painters— including Rothko! His practice reminds us that painting is about feeling, more than just seeing, and that artists are in ongoing conversations with one another. These marks are a reminder that paintings can be a record of our attention.