Paradise 1995

Eyvind Earle made Paradise, though I'm not sure exactly when, probably with oil on some kind of board. He had this interesting way of making landscapes look both real and totally made up. The paint isn’t trying to trick you into thinking it’s anything other than paint, it’s very present on the surface, almost like little jewels. Look closely at the way the light hits the left side of the hillside, there’s a real sense of texture here. It's not just the color, but the way he's built up the surface, tiny touches and dabs, like he's weaving with paint. The effect is dreamy, it dissolves the landscape into something magical. I think about the Hudson River School painters, like Frederic Church, but Earle is less about grand vistas and more about intimate, almost psychedelic detail. It reminds us that art is a process of seeing, feeling, and then making something new from the world around us.