From Ávila c. 1903

John Singer Sargent made this watercolour, ‘From Ávila’, probably outside, squinting, trying to capture the light and atmosphere. I imagine him dabbing at the paper, trying to evoke the vastness of the Spanish landscape. The brushstrokes are loose and quick, like he’s trying to catch a fleeting moment. See how the colours bleed into each other – the lavender sky merging with the ochre earth? It’s all about capturing the essence of a place, not a photographic representation. Sargent was primarily a portrait painter, but he often painted landscapes like this ‘en plein air’ which is French for ‘outside’. He really took up watercolour painting later in life; he had a fluid technique and a sharp eye for capturing light and atmosphere, a bit like his contemporary, the Swedish painter Anders Zorn. What I love about painting, and watercolour in particular, is its directness. It's as if the artist is speaking directly to you, sharing their immediate experience of the world.