Oregon Landscape 1908

Childe Hassam made this painting, Oregon Landscape, with oil on canvas using strokes of blues, yellows, and greens to capture the Oregon terrain. Can’t you just see him standing there, squinting against the sun, dabbing the canvas with thick, juicy strokes, trying to capture the light just so? Hassam’s brushwork is confident. Look at the way he renders the clouds – these aren't just clouds; they're piles of pigment, built up layer by layer, each dab a record of his looking. It’s easy to imagine him, wrestling with the light and the landscape, and how he tries to get at it with paint. It’s not a perfect representation, but it’s a damn good feeling. Hassam was part of the American Impressionist movement, and it's always inspiring to think about how artists riff off each other, each one adding their voice to the conversation, trying new ways of seeing, new ways of feeling, and new ways to lay down those colors.