Chesapeake Bay II c. 2001

This is Ross Merrill’s “Chesapeake Bay II,” made with pastel on paper. I love the raw energy of pastel; it’s so immediate and physical, like smearing pigment right onto the surface with your fingers. Looking at those strokes of blue scumbled across the top, I can almost feel the artist working quickly, trying to capture the way light shifts on the water. I imagine them outside, sketchbook in hand, squinting at the horizon, feeling the breeze. The grey-yellow cloud is especially beautiful, all smudged and luminous, like something caught between dream and reality. It reminds me of some of the early American landscape painters, trying to capture the vastness and wildness of the American landscape. Ross makes us feel the weight of the cloud, the vastness of the sky, the shimmer of light on the water. Artists have always been in conversation with one another. Each generation builds on what came before, reinterpreting and reimagining the world around them. And for me, that’s the beauty of painting. It's not about capturing a perfect likeness but about feeling, sensing, and embodying a moment in time.