La Pointe De Cougoussa, Sunset 1925

Lucien Pissarro made this painting of La Pointe De Cougoussa, Sunset, using a brush loaded with peachy, light and dusty colors. I can imagine the act of painting itself: building up, shifting, and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. It's like Pissarro stood there, squinting at the sun, thinking about his dad, Camille, maybe even Seurat, wondering how to get that feeling of light just right, the way it blurs the edges of everything. He’s working alla prima to capture that moment, the sun dropping, the water shimmering. See how the strokes are laid down next to each other, like mosaic tiles? Each dab of paint is a little note in a visual song. I think this work fits in the wider tradition of landscape painting, these artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, and inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting embraces ambiguity, and allows for multiple interpretations.