Goats grazing in a landscape 1961

Grégoire Michonze made 'Goats grazing in a landscape' with oil paint, though when exactly, we don't know. The brushwork here is really something; loose, with colors kind of smudged together like an impressionist doing folk art. The paint has a tactile quality. It’s not thick, but the brushstrokes create texture, especially in the clouds and foliage. Look at the ground: warm yellows and browns dragged across the surface, giving it a kind of rough, earthy feel. And then those goats! They're not precious, they're just marks, almost like shorthand for animals, but they totally work. It makes me think of Milton Avery, who also distilled forms down to their essence. Both artists remind us that painting is about seeing and feeling, more than about exact representation.