View from Wordens Hill 1943

Milton Avery made this landscape, *View from Wordens Hill*, with pencil on paper, probably sitting outside somewhere, in front of a vista. I can imagine Avery quickly capturing the essence of this hillside view, making marks that suggest the layers of landscape rolling away in the distance. Look at those scribbly bushes, and the scratchy lines suggesting grassy fields. I sympathize with Avery, trying to capture the light and shadow, the way the land dips and rises. What was he thinking as he worked? Was he trying to distill this scene into its simplest forms? I like to think so. You know, there’s a real casualness to the whole thing. It reminds me that painting is basically just mark-making, trying to figure out what you see, but also what you feel. And I feel that too, when I look at other paintings. I think we’re all, as painters, in conversation with each other.