House with Dutch Roof c. 1928

John Marin made this painting of a House with Dutch Roof using oil on canvas, and it’s a juicy little thing. Look at the way the brushstrokes wrestle with each other, making the snow look like it’s about to slide right off the roof! I’m imagining Marin, out there in the cold, squinting at this house, trying to capture not just how it looks, but how it *feels* to be there, in that moment. See how the blues and reds pop against the muted grays and whites? It's like he’s saying, "Even in the dead of winter, there's life, there's color, there's energy!" The way he’s handled the paint – thick, almost sculptural in places – reminds me of some of the early modernists, those folks who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty. And I bet Marin would have loved their spirit, that sense of experimentation and play. It’s a lineage, this conversation between artists, each one riffing off the other, keeping the energy alive.