An Artist at His Easel 1914

Editor: So, this is John Singer Sargent's "An Artist at His Easel" from 1914. It's a watercolour piece, and what immediately strikes me is how...blurry everything seems? It’s like a dreamscape of a painter in action. What do you see in this work? Curator: A blurry dreamscape indeed! Perhaps that's because it's also a deeply personal, intuitive capture, wouldn't you say? Look at how Sargent implicates us; are we the observed or are we watching him dream the landscape into being? There's a beautiful interplay between observer and observed, reality and artistic creation, isn't there? Notice, too, the confident brushstrokes - almost nonchalant, but they build up into this vibrant scene. It’s plein-air painting at its most evocative! He's not just representing the landscape; he's channeling the very act of seeing. I find myself wondering what song he heard in the landscape! Editor: I hadn’t really thought about it as this act of 'seeing', more of just recording... I suppose. Curator: Consider that hat perched jauntily, shading his eyes as the bright sunlight floods the landscape. Does he remind you of anything? Anything at all? Editor: A kind of intrepid explorer, maybe? Mapping uncharted artistic territory. Curator: Exactly! Only the territory here is his own perception. But it is a dialogue, this constant feedback between reality and the painter. Are the dark patches trees or emotions? Are the brilliant strokes emotions, perhaps the ecstasy and difficulty in realizing what one has experienced internally as an artist? Does this inspire you, too, to be more courageous in the face of expressing raw sensation? Editor: It does make me think differently about the role of the artist... less of a mirror, more of a transformer, perhaps. Curator: A transformer, yes, a filter – beautiful! Someone unafraid of light, or the shadows cast by standing in it. A very cool glimpse behind the curtain into a really passionate artistic soul, eh?