Approaching Fog

This late watercolor looks outward from Marin’s home toward the tide marker rock, coastal ledges, and waters of Pleasant Bay. A somber portrait of the sea by one who understood its character intimately, the work alludes to a gradual envelopment by nothingness, aging, and death. Yet it possesses energy and excitement: splashes of green and red shimmer though the gray mists, while calligraphic black lines activate the surf and air. These marks, some applied with a medical syringe, reflect the artist’s awareness of recent developments in Action Painting. Here he blotted, scraped, and wiped pigment, combining transparent and opaque watercolor, brush and black ink, and fabricated charcoal.