Landscape with willows 2009

Eleonora Brigalda Barbas painted “Landscape with Willows” in oil paint. The land is a striking red which contrasts with the cooler colors of the trees and the white sky. It’s an optimistic color, don’t you think? I imagine her standing at her easel, mixing piles of thick paint, wondering how to make a painting of something so familiar. Painting landscapes can be hard. I like the bravura of the brushstrokes, how she has fearlessly applied the paint to the canvas in a loose and expressive manner. I can feel how much she loved the landscape, and how she felt compelled to capture the way the light fell on the land. She has reduced the scene to its basic forms and colors, using a limited palette of reds, greens, blues, and whites to create a sense of depth and atmosphere. Her work reminds me of Van Gogh, because of that similar love of the land, and the feeling of expressionism. Each artist finds inspiration in the work of their predecessors, and builds upon it in their own unique way. Painting is a form of embodied expression that captures a feeling more than an image.