Farm at La Petite Mare 1907

Francis Picabia made this painting, Farm at La Petite Mare, with oils on canvas, and wow, what a great surface! The dominant marks and colors give me the impression of a sunny day in the countryside, captured with short, energetic brushstrokes. I can almost feel Picabia standing there, squinting, trying to capture the way the light hits the leaves and the side of the barn. I bet he mixed those greens and yellows right on the canvas, going for the feeling more than the detail. Think about how many other painters have looked at the same kind of scene. But Picabia’s got his own take, right? It’s like he’s saying, "Yeah, it’s a farm, but it’s also a field of pure color and light, a place where everything’s vibrating.” I see him in conversation with the Impressionists, but pushing it further toward something more abstract, more about the act of seeing itself. That’s what I love about painting: it's an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas. It embraces ambiguity and uncertainty. We can come back to these paintings again and again, always finding something new.