The Banks of the Pond at Rosporden 1911

Maxime Maufra painted The Banks of the Pond at Rosporden, probably en plein air, with oil on canvas. I wonder what it was like to stand there? Look at these little marks, one after the other. They feel like a kind of language—not so much a story, but a feeling, a gentle hum of light and air, reflecting the spire of a church. I see the water with all its dappled blues and greens, built up from soft, feathery touches. Maufra uses strokes of varying directions, some horizontal, some vertical, others diagonal, building the image like a mosaic. You can really see how he’s thinking through paint. Maybe he learned from Monet, or Sisley—all those artists who loved the light and capturing it. It’s like they are all in conversation, with paintings as their words, and us eavesdropping! Painting is a language that never quite says what it means, but it is always trying.