San Gabriel Canyon 

Benjamin Brown's 'San Gabriel Canyon' is dominated by a V-shaped composition of mountain ranges. The foreground is set in earthy browns and greens, and the towering mountains, rendered in cool blues and warm yellows, ascend into a hazy sky. These colors evoke both a sense of serenity and natural grandeur. Brown employs a subtle interplay between the detailed brushstrokes and the vastness of the landscape. This evokes a dialectic between the material reality of the paint and the ethereal quality of the light. The brushstrokes function as signs, drawing our eye through the topography of the canyon. Ultimately, the work's structure invites us to consider our own position within the landscape. We are both observers and participants in a visual experience that is never fixed, but rather, is subject to continual shifts in perception and interpretation.