Salem Cove c. 1915 - 1918

Maurice Prendergast painted ‘Salem Cove’ with oil on canvas, and looking at the surface, it feels like he was really enjoying himself. There's a playful quality to the brushwork, a kind of dabbing and stippling that builds up the image, like mosaic. The whole scene is rendered in these little touches of color, which for me, is so much of what painting is about. It’s a process of accumulating marks until an image emerges. What I like about Prendergast is his almost clumsy, awkward way of putting things together, it feels very human. If you look closely at the figures, they're not sharply defined, but rather suggested through a few deft strokes of paint. There’s a sense of movement and energy in the way he captures the crowd, the dappled sunlight, the shimmering water. He reminds me a bit of Bonnard, that same interest in capturing the fleeting moments of everyday life, but with his own distinct, slightly eccentric vision. Prendergast reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation, a constant process of experimentation and discovery.