California Coast 1975

Eyvind Earle made this vision of the California Coast, and I’m immediately struck by how he flattens the landscape, turning it almost into a decorative pattern. It's like the landscape has been translated into a graphic score. Look at how Earle renders the trees; each one is a deliberate, repeated gesture, a kind of stylized shorthand for foliage. The paint seems thinly applied, allowing the texture of the surface to peek through, which gives it this airy quality. The limited color palette – mostly blacks, whites, and grays – enhances the graphic feel. There's this section where the trees become these vertical stripes heading toward the sea. They’re like musical notations, suggesting movement and rhythm, the flow of nature turned into a visual symphony. Earle's approach reminds me a bit of Hiroshige, the way he simplifies natural forms into elegant compositions. But Earle adds this uniquely American, almost Disney-esque, sense of theatricality. In the end, art is about seeing the world, and then showing others how you saw it.