Sketching by the Sea 1944

In 1944, Milton Avery painted "Sketching by the Sea" with oil on canvas, and it feels like a perfectly quiet moment. Look at how Avery applies paint, not trying to hide his moves. The way the waves are described with broken strokes is really nice. You can see the brushwork. I really like how he’s handled the color here. He creates form out of these large planes of simplified color, like the waves crashing and the rocks they’re hitting. The pink canvas one of the figures is working on is a subtle move that picks up the rosy color in the figure in the foreground. I find this work to be very comforting. Avery's simplification of form reminds me of the work of Alex Katz, and it's this economy of means that gives the work its power. You get the sense of it being a place for reflection, a place to watch the waves and to get some work done.