Rapallo Grauer day 1905

"Rapallo Grauer day" by Wassily Kandinsky, is a small painting, just 24 x 33 cm, made with oil on cardboard. I love the thick strokes of blues and greens, how they capture the grey day and the sea’s choppy surface. You can almost feel the cool, damp air. Just imagine Kandinsky, standing there, rapidly applying paint, trying to capture the essence of the scene. The brushwork is so expressive, each dab and stroke loaded with feeling, with the weight of observation and interpretation. He lays down each stroke with confidence, but maybe there were hesitations, adjustments… Did he struggle to get the light just right, or did it all flow out of him in a rush? This painting feels like a direct link to Kandinsky's inner world, and a move towards the abstract language he would soon become known for. Like many painters, he's in conversation with other artists, riffing on things they've done before and pushing in new directions. Painting is always an experiment. It's a process that invites us to slow down, to question, and to see the world in new ways.