Sketch for 'Near Toulon' 1929

Rupert Bunny made this landscape sketch for ‘Near Toulon’ with oil. Look at the way Bunny lays down paint – short, deliberate strokes, like he’s knitting together the scene. It’s less about exact representation and more about capturing the feeling of a place. You get a sense of artmaking as a thoughtful, step-by-step process. The materiality here is key. The paint isn’t too thick, not overly worked, but you can see the brushstrokes building up the forms. Notice the foreground, with its scrubby vegetation and earthy tones, compared to the hazy, almost dreamlike mountains in the distance. See how a few strokes define the tree on the left, it is not just a tree but a dance of light and shadow, a gesture towards the landscape. Bunny seems to be in conversation with artists like Bonnard, capturing a moment, an impression, rather than a detailed portrait. It’s all about embracing the ambiguity, the layers of meaning that come with looking and feeling.