San Pedro Harbor 1901

Granville Redmond made this little oil painting of San Pedro Harbor, and you can almost feel him out there on the dock, watching the water. The brushstrokes are quick and kind of chunky, like he was trying to catch a feeling more than a perfect picture. I can imagine him squinting at the light, mixing up these soft, muted colors – creams, browns, blues – trying to get that hazy, sun-bleached look just right. There's a boat way off in the distance, and you can almost feel the sway of the water. What I love about painting is how a simple mark, like the line of a mast, can hold so much – a memory, a place, a whole mood. You know, he was part of a whole crew of painters doing this kind of work, inspired by the light in California. They're all in conversation, across time, with the paint itself. It's kind of beautiful, right?