Poppies 1976

Eyvind Earle made Poppies with what looks like gouache or tempera, maybe even silkscreen. The color palette is pure fairytale, almost hallucinatory with a hot pink glow. I love how the branches reach out like delicate fingers, scratching at the surface. See how they’re painted with such a thin, almost watery consistency, in contrast to the thicker opaque hues of the flowers and foliage? It's like Earle is playing with layers of transparency and opacity. I imagine he added layer upon layer to make this a highly textured image. And those poppies, they practically vibrate against the darker blues and greens. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Dove’s simplified forms and the way he pushed color to its expressive limit. Ultimately, a piece like this reminds us that painting is as much about feeling and dreaming as it is about seeing.