Looking Toward Isle Au Haut, Maine, from Deer Isle 1919

John Marin made 'Looking Toward Isle Au Haut, Maine, from Deer Isle' using watercolor. The way he applies the paint soaks right into the paper, like a stain, and that’s part of what makes it so light and airy, as if he’s trying to capture the fleeting nature of a view. Look how the colors kind of bleed into each other, especially in the sky. There is a looseness to the whole thing. You can see the brushstrokes, but they're not trying to hide anything. It's all about the process of seeing and feeling. The strokes around the trees are great. Some are light washes, others are layered. This combination gives them a sense of depth and texture. It is almost as if he painted the feeling of the trees as much as the trees themselves. Marin's work reminds me a little bit of Arthur Dove, another painter who was trying to capture the essence of American landscapes with a similar abstract sensibility. Both artists create artworks that are open to interpretation.