Katherine 1904

Clarence Gagnon painted this, Katherine, with oil on canvas, and it's just so wonderfully, casually made. I can really get behind a painting that has an open relationship with process. It's all about color and light, the way he’s built up the surface with these quick, impressionistic marks. Check out how the red of her dress just explodes against the green of the field and the cool blues of the ocean. You can almost feel the breeze and smell the salt air. It’s like he’s captured a fleeting moment, a snapshot of a woman lost in thought. The brushwork is loose, almost like he's scribbling with paint. Look at the way he renders her hair – it’s a mass of tangled strokes, but somehow it totally works. There's a similar feeling to some of Bonnard's paintings, in the way he captures the intimacy of everyday life, just making paintings in conversation with one another across time. Art doesn't need to answer any question, but it can raise quite a few, right?