Simplicity and depth

August 19th, 2024

Just as I was wrong about Norman Rockwell and Caravaggio, I was wrong about Winslow Homer as well. I liked his paintings, I could easily spend some time looking at his works — especially watercolors — but I was not impressed with what I perceived as his lack of depth. His paintings were to me only beautiful and technically perfect (which is amazing considering that he was mostly self-taught) but I didn't see anything more in them for me to pay more attention and deepen my thinking and appreciation. Last weekend I spent a couple of hours again looking at his paintings and slowly, but surely something in my thinking had turned. The more I looked, the more clear it became that there is another layer in his works that I am just scratching and that something is worth more of my time and exploration.

There was something else in his works, especially nature paintings from the Adirondacks. Seeing those paintings, I felt a strong and unpleasant ting in my heart and my soul. For a moment I thought how disappointing it is that there is nothing more for me to explore and discover. That everything was done already, mapped and measured and named. That lasted for a painful minute before I realized that was not true. I still have plenty of places to discover and explore and name (for myself only) within a short ride from where I live. I know of places where no one has been for years or maybe decades. Place just waiting for an intrepid hiker and pretended trapper like I am fond of imagining myself… Strangely I haven't done much hiking recently.