Vista Do Caminho Para Mariana 1962

Alberto da Veiga Guignard made this landscape, 'Vista Do Caminho Para Mariana', with such tender paint strokes and harmonious, muted greens. You can almost feel him standing on that hillside in Brazil. It’s so evocative of the actual physical experience of being in nature: the way the paint is applied feels exploratory, almost like the artist is trying to figure something out. I imagine him, brush in hand, pondering the relationship between the foreground and the distant mountains, playing with the contrasts of light and shadow in his painting. Look at the way he uses color to create depth – the cool blues and greens of the hills receding into the background, and the warm browns and yellows of the buildings in the foreground. It reminds me a bit of Cézanne, who was also interested in capturing the essence of a place through paint. I guess we all stand on the shoulders of the masters who came before us, each adding our own unique voice to the conversation.