Seaweed and Surf, Appledore 1912

Childe Hassam made this painting, Seaweed and Surf, Appledore, with oil on canvas, and it's like he's wrestling with the ocean itself. You can almost feel the spray and the roar of the waves just by looking at the way he's slapped on the paint. Look at the rocks, built up with these chunky, textured strokes, then see how the water is all broken up into shimmering dabs of white, green, and blue. I mean, it's thick, you can almost feel the grit of the sand and the coldness of the water. Then, right at the top, that explosion of white where the wave crashes - it's like he's trying to capture a moment that's impossible to hold onto. Hassam reminds me a little of Winslow Homer, in the way they both were drawn to the raw power of the sea. But where Homer is maybe more about the drama, Hassam feels more about the fleeting, sensory experience. It’s a reminder that painting is always an act of translation, a way of making sense of the world through feeling.