Mallard Rising 1933

Archibald Thorburn made this painting in 1933, and it's a dance of watercolour where realism takes flight. I love how he layers the colours, letting them bleed and mingle, capturing not just what a mallard looks like, but how it feels to see one burst into the sky. The physicality here is all in the delicate touch; the paint is applied so thinly it feels like the birds could fly right off the page. Look closely at the way the light hits the wings of the rising mallard, how each feather is hinted at with the lightest of strokes. There’s a real sense of movement, a fleeting moment captured in a medium that seems as fluid and alive as the subject itself. The reeds in the foreground are so impressionistic that it reminds me of a slightly looser Helen Frankenthaler piece, maybe, if she painted wildlife. It's a painting that celebrates the beauty of nature and the magic of process, and I think reminds us that art is an ongoing conversation about how we see, feel, and experience the world.