Winter Valley 1944

Lamar Dodd made this "Winter Valley" painting without a date, using paint – obviously. It's this muted symphony of grays, browns, and greens, like a foggy memory of a place. I’m imagining Dodd, standing before the canvas, layering these strokes, trying to capture the stillness of a winter morning. Look at the way he renders the smoke rising from the chimneys. Each stroke feels like a breath, a whisper of warmth in the cold. I can almost feel the chill in the air, the dampness of the ground. It reminds me of some of Fairfield Porter’s landscapes, that same attention to the quiet beauty of everyday scenes. But Dodd’s got his own thing, a certain rawness. You know, painting is like a conversation with the world, and artists like Dodd remind us to listen to the quiet voices, the subtle moments that often go unnoticed. He is speaking to you, and me, and Fairfield Porter too.