Blick in die Klausen bei Mödling 1942

Carl Moll made this painting "Blick in die Klausen bei Mödling" with oil paint, probably en plein air! Look at the thick daubs of paint, the juicy greens, and the way the light hits the scene. You can almost feel the sun on your face, can't you? I imagine Moll standing there, squinting, trying to capture the way the light filters through the trees and the mountains. I wonder what he was thinking about as he mixed those greens and blues. Was he battling the wind, or swatting at flies? It makes me think about the physicality of painting— the dance between the eye, the hand, and the world. The painting almost reminds me of some of Gustav Courbet's landscapes; this feels like the same kind of direct response to nature. Artists, we're all looking at each other, responding, trying to figure out this whole thing together.