Wooded Landscape 1943

Milton Avery created this drawing, Wooded Landscape, with pencil on paper. It's like a quick little poem, isn't it? I love the way the marks build up, hatching across the page to make these almost architectural forms, like the trees and bushes in the scene. He's not trying to trick you into thinking this is real, but instead, he's reminding you that you're looking at a drawing and maybe even how drawings are made. I bet Avery was out in the landscape when he made this. There’s a kind of urgency to it, capturing what it felt like to be there, breathing the air, looking at the forms, all at once. It's like a shorthand for seeing – an exchange between the eye and the hand. It reminds me of other painters, like Guston, who make marks that are so simple, but somehow, they manage to feel like the whole world. Avery’s work reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation across time. We can all be inspired by each other's creativity. It is like an embodied expression that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing multiple interpretations and meanings.