North Shore, Lake Superior 1926

Lawren Harris painted "North Shore, Lake Superior," with oil on canvas and his approach to applying paint is so smooth, it almost looks like it was airbrushed. The painting has this incredible, simplified, almost geometric form and surface. Look at the way the light seems to radiate down, creating these smooth, pillowy forms in the clouds and land. The paint application is so seamless, so blended, that it's like Harris wanted to erase any trace of his hand. It’s like he’s trying to get to some kind of pure, essential form. I am drawn to that tree stump in the centre, how it reaches up, stripped bare, a monument to time and the elements. It reminds me a bit of some of Marsden Hartley’s stark landscapes, that same search for something monumental. But Harris’s smoothness gives it a totally different feel. It makes me consider how art isn’t about answers, but about the ongoing journey of seeing, thinking, and feeling.