Plage a Mericourt 1929

Maximilien Luce made "Plage a Mericourt" with oil on canvas, and it's like, whoa, check out these juicy, hazy colors! It’s not about precision; it’s about feeling, like a memory of a summer day. Luce’s touch is so immediate, it’s all about these luscious dabs of color laid down next to each other. The paint isn't trying to hide itself; it's right there on the surface, thick enough that you could almost peel it off. Look at the kids wrestling in the foreground – you can practically feel the heat radiating off them. Each blob and dab of color is a decision, a tiny little adventure right there on the canvas. Luce's paintings remind me a bit of Pissarro, but with an added dose of warmth and an interest in working-class leisure. But where Pissarro is all about close observation, Luce seems to be more interested in capturing the fleeting, ephemeral sensations of light and air. It’s this mix of formal experimentation with a deep love of human experience, that makes painting so endlessly fascinating.