Blue Mist c. 1920s

Editor: This is Arthur Bowen Davies’s "Blue Mist," created around the 1920s, and it’s rendered in watercolor. I’m struck by the incredible sense of distance and serenity it evokes. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a landscape, of course, but it transcends simple representation. Davies captures the essence of distance through color. Blue, often linked with melancholy, expands psychologically, pulling our gaze—and our thoughts—into the beyond. Notice how the overlapping mountains become almost ethereal. Does it call any personal memories for you? Editor: I'm reminded of a foggy morning in the Appalachian mountains; you could barely see past the first ridge! Curator: The fading into obscurity? Precisely. It's that ephemeral quality. Artists throughout history have used mist and fog to represent the veil between worlds, the known and the unknown. Think about Caspar David Friedrich, how he used mist to invoke Romantic sublime in nature and the viewer’s emotional response. Do you think the abstraction in the painting helps in conveying such ethereal or ‘spiritual’ essence? Editor: Absolutely, I think the blurring of detail adds to the dreamlike quality, and universalizes the imagery beyond a specific locale. Curator: Indeed. It transforms a simple mountain range into a symbolic landscape. Blue, in this context, doesn't just depict color, it invokes feelings of introspection, memory, the untouchable. We can see traces of such emotive landscapes from Turner to Monet, reflecting a longing for something beyond our grasp. How do you interpret the layering effect in the artwork? Editor: I guess it mimics depth but could also reflect layers of experience. Curator: Beautifully put. In Davies's time, abstraction was becoming a language for exploring interior worlds. "Blue Mist" whispers to our subconscious, bridging outer and inner landscapes. Editor: This has really deepened my understanding. I see it now as more than just a landscape, but as a meditation on memory and experience.