Icelandic Landscape with Sheep, Man and Red Roof 1983

Louisa Matthiasdottir made this Icelandic landscape painting with sheep, a man, and a red roof, using blocks of simplified color, like, bam, bam, bam! I can imagine her standing there, the wind whipping around her, trying to capture the stark beauty of Iceland. What does it mean to distill a landscape down to its most essential forms? Maybe she felt the cold clarity of the air, the way the light hits the mountains, and wanted to find a visual language that matched that feeling. Look at that red roof – it's so vibrant against the muted blues and greens. It's like a little jolt of energy. And the sheep, standing like solid, geometric shapes in the field, just brilliant. I think of Fairfield Porter, who also painted landscapes with a similar directness. There’s this conversation happening, across time, across canvases. Each artist finding their own way to translate the world onto the canvas. It's a beautiful, ongoing dialogue.