Old Dutch Building, Fishkill, New York 1916

This is Childe Hassam’s watercolor, made in 1916, depicting an old Dutch building in Fishkill, New York; it's a perfect example of how watercolor painting embraces chance and improvisation. See how Hassam lets the colors bleed and mingle on the page? The brickwork around the windows and the texture of the stone walls are evoked with a few deft strokes of color. It's less about precise representation, and more about capturing the essence of the scene. I particularly love the way he suggests the light filtering through the trees. Look at the washes, like how the greens and grays in the foreground are blurring together. You can almost feel the humidity in the air. There is something so freeing about how he doesn’t fuss over details. This kind of loose, atmospheric approach reminds me of John Singer Sargent, another painter who knew how to make watercolor sing. Both artists teach us that painting is a conversation with the medium, a dance between intention and accident.