Street Scene, Granada 1904

Clarence Gagnon made this painting of a street scene in Granada with oil on canvas. It's got a real sense of place, built up with these tiny, almost mosaic-like dabs of color. Look at the way he's built up the walls of those buildings – you can practically feel the rough texture of the stone, and the way the light hits them. There's a shadow across the foreground which seems to stretch out into the middle ground, and the light on the buildings looks pretty harsh. Then check out the figure standing outside the house. The white of the clothing really shines and pops in contrast to the darkness of the doorway. It's almost as if the artist is drawing our eye to that focal point and reminding us about the warmth and the life that exists inside these buildings. I can imagine that Paul Cezanne's paintings may have been an influence on Gagnon's work. Like Cezanne, Gagnon uses a limited palette, and embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed meanings.