Laggan Farm Buildings near Dalbeattie 1916

Samuel Peploe painted “Laggan Farm Buildings near Dalbeattie” with oil on canvas, and it feels like he built it up, brick by brick, with color. I love how Peploe handled the paint here, building the forms with simple blocks of color. You can see how each stroke is laid next to another, each one distinct but somehow working together to create a sense of depth and volume. There’s something so honest about the way he leaves the marks visible, like he’s showing us the nuts and bolts of how a painting is made. Look at the cool blues he uses for the farm building on the left, and then the greens of the trees beyond. These touches feel very Cezanne-like, with a Fauvist twist. It's as though he wants to build the shapes out of pigment alone, letting the color do all the work of defining form. It’s this kind of construction that makes the painting so dynamic. It feels like Peploe is not just depicting a landscape, but he is building one, stroke by stroke.