October Morning (no 1) 1910

Willard Metcalf’s "October Morning" is an oil painting where the brushstrokes are like little pats of color, kind of dabbed onto the canvas. It's like he's not trying to hide the process but show it off. Up close, you can really see how he builds up the leaves with these tiny, separate strokes of orange and yellow, almost like he's knitting with paint. Then there’s the water, these horizontal dashes of blue and purple that give the sense of movement, of the river flowing. The paint isn’t super thick, but it's not thin either, it has a materiality that invites you in. The way the colours blend in your eye but are actually distinct on the canvas, it's like he's letting the painting breathe, allowing for a little bit of chance and discovery. It puts me in mind of other landscape painters like John Constable. There’s a similar love of nature, a similar way of seeing. But Metcalf is doing his own thing, too. It’s this kind of exchange that keeps art fresh.