A blue house 1902

Picasso painted this yellow house with oil on canvas, and the first thing that grabs me is the roughness. There's no attempt to hide the process; you see every stroke, every decision. The paint is laid on thick, almost like he's building the house out of pigment. It reminds me that making art isn't about slickness, it's about the journey. Look at that patch of muddy green just above the central arch. It's like a little accident that Picasso decided to keep, and it adds so much life to the piece. It's like he's saying, "Hey, art is messy, life is messy, and that's okay." You could look at someone like Guston, who also embraced the clumsy and imperfect, finding beauty in the raw and unfiltered. It's a reminder that art isn't about perfection, it's about honesty.