The tree on Adriatic Coast and Velebit Mnt. (24th July 2014) 2014

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this small watercolor painting of a tree on the Adriatic Coast in 2014, and I can imagine the wateriness of the medium responding to the air and light right there, en plein air. You know, watercolor has this funny reputation for being polite, but it can be pretty punk rock. It stains, it bleeds, it does its own thing. I can feel Krupa wrestling with the way the pigments move, trying to capture the light reflecting off the water and the mountains in the distance. Look at how he’s layered those washes of blue, pink, and brown to create depth and texture. The tree itself is almost ghostly, a skeletal form against the sky. It reminds me of some of those early modern landscape painters, like Cezanne, who were trying to get at something essential about the structure of the world. Painting is like a conversation, right? We’re all talking to each other across time, riffing on the same themes, trying to make sense of things. It's never about the finality, but the in-betweenness of the making, an openness to something else, and some kind of transformation!