Valdemosa,Majorca – Thistles and Herbage on a Hillside 1908

John Singer Sargent made "Valdemosa, Majorca – Thistles and Herbage on a Hillside" with oil paint, maybe during one of his many travels. Looking at it, I see a bunch of greens and browns all mixed together, like he was trying to catch the feel of a place more than just copy what it looked like. It’s like how I approach painting, where the doing is as important as the seeing. The paint itself is pretty thick in parts, especially where the light hits those rocks and bushes. You can almost feel the sun beating down. He really went at it, dabbing and stroking the paint to make these rough textures. There's this one spot, right in the middle, where the paint is all swirled together, a kind of messy dance. It reminds me of a similar feeling to Courbet's landscapes, raw and immediate. It's like Sargent is saying, "Here’s a place, not just to look at, but to feel and get lost in." That’s what great painting does. It invites you into the conversation, even if you're not sure what's being said.