Olive Trees, Corfu 1909

John Singer Sargent made this painting, Olive Trees, Corfu, with oil on canvas. The marks are so breezy and loose, like he’s capturing a fleeting impression rather than a detailed scene. The color palette is restrained, mostly greens and browns, which gives the painting a sense of calm. It's like a visual whisper. Looking at the foreground, there's this juicy green—almost acidic—painted with such casual confidence. You can practically feel the brushstrokes. Then, the olive trees themselves, sketched in with a sort of elegant shorthand, their leaves a mix of grays and muted greens. It’s all about the surface, that push and pull between representation and abstraction. Sargent reminds me a bit of Manet in his attention to the materiality of paint, but where Manet can be cool and detached, Sargent’s got this warmth, this palpable sense of light and atmosphere. He invites you into the scene, leaves space for your own imagination. Art's not just about showing what’s there, but how we see and feel what’s there.