California Coast 1975

Eyvind Earle’s ‘California Coast’ is a symphony of blacks, whites, and greys, accented with touches of green, probably made with gouache or a similar opaque medium. I can imagine Earle carefully layering the paint, letting it dry and then adding another layer to create a clean, precise delineation of shapes. He’s really thinking about the surface, flattening the landscape into these stark graphic forms. It's so controlled and deliberate. The man had a plan! Those dark, brooding trees cascading down the cliffside, they almost look like dark green tears, don’t they? Earle must have felt something akin to that, a kind of somber majesty when looking out at the vista, don’t you think? The contrast with the white mist and sea is just so intense! It speaks to the drama of the landscape, the push and pull of the natural elements. He’s in conversation with other painters, from Hiroshige to Milton Avery, making it his own through that high contrast and flattened perspective. It’s this exchange, across time, that keeps the conversation of painting alive and vital.