The Joy of Life 1908 - 1915

Edvard Weie made this painting, The Joy of Life, with oil on canvas, and I imagine he worked with quick, deliberate strokes to capture this fleeting moment of exuberance. The palette is mostly muted, with greens, yellows, and fleshy pinks blending into each other. I can almost feel the texture of the paint – thick in some areas, thinned out in others, maybe with turpentine. Look at the way the figures are rendered – they are not quite defined, but more like suggestions of bodies caught in motion. It makes me wonder what he was thinking. Did he want to capture the sheer delight of being alive, the freedom of movement, or was he just trying to nail a composition? There is something deeply honest about Weie’s exploration of form and the physicality of paint. Like the Fauvists, Weie's application of colour contributes to the emotional resonance of the work, and shows us how painting is an exchange of ideas across time. Artists build on the work of others, and, in that ongoing conversation, we find new ways of seeing and experiencing the world.