The Castle of the Pyrenees 1959

René Magritte made "The Castle of the Pyrenees" with oil paint and a clear, meticulous eye. He conjures a dreamscape where a massive rock, crowned with a castle, floats impossibly above a turbulent sea. I can almost feel the texture of that rock, each dab of paint building up its rough surface. You know, I bet Magritte labored over those clouds, trying to get that delicate balance between realism and otherworldliness. There’s something about the juxtaposition of the mundane – the sea, the sky – with the impossible, a floating rock, that really gets to me. It is quite funny that this kind of painting made with such detail can show a completely made-up world. It reminds me a bit of de Chirico's uncanny spaces, but with a touch more playfulness. All of us artists are just bouncing ideas off each other across time, remixing and reimagining. It's a reminder that painting, at its best, is about opening up possibilities, not closing them down.