Restaurant Overlooking the Pacific 1990

John Register made this painting, "Restaurant Overlooking the Pacific," with quiet, contemplative brushstrokes, layering thinned down paint, one over the other. The scene is deceptively simple, and this calmness is what gets me. I can imagine him setting up his easel, trying to capture that specific, diffused light, maybe struggling to get the emptiness just right. You know, there's something so relatable in the stillness. The geometry of the room feels like a stage, and the hard lines of the furnishings amplify the ocean view. It reminds me of Hopper’s paintings—the same loneliness, the same feeling of being on the outside looking in. What do you think the painter was trying to do with the hard, triangular shadow on the right? Shadows are like stand-ins for stuff. I love how paintings can conjure feelings about reality, using just paint.