Landscape, Davis I 1962

Roland Petersen made this landscape, perhaps in Davis, with paint that seems almost gleefully applied. You can see the brushstrokes, thick and juicy, like he was wrestling with the scene right there on the canvas. The colors are bold, but not quite realistic – a pink road, a blue field – giving it a playful, dreamlike quality. Look at how he’s laid down those strokes, side by side, letting them mix in your eye rather than on the canvas. It's a process of layering, of building up the image bit by bit. That big, solid green block in the middle feels like an echo of Milton Avery, who also knew how to simplify a landscape down to its essence. Petersen isn't trying to trick you into thinking this is real; it's more about feeling the landscape, the colors, and the joy of pushing paint around. Isn’t that what art is all about, anyway?