Light Landscape 1917

Janos Mattis-Teutsch made this light-filled landscape with generous strokes of oil paint. I can only imagine how he began, maybe with the pink tree trunks, which reach up and over like a kind of portal. It’s fun to think about how the landscape probably wasn't actually pink and yellow in real life, but in his mind’s eye he saw it like this, and why not? He's laid down each brushstroke with feeling, so that they ripple and vibrate across the surface. See how the pinks and greens squirm against each other, setting up a chromatic buzz. The tree is a kind of symbol, maybe even a feeling. The way the painting is built up from layer upon layer reminds me of other painters like Marsden Hartley or even Milton Avery, folks who followed their own path, and found freedom and joy in colour. It makes me want to pick up a brush myself and make my own light landscape.