Johan Dijkstra artwork • painting • for sale Country road near Beijum

This painting by Johan Dijkstra is a heartwarming, exuberant impression of a windy day in the Groningen countryside. A play of color and line, atmosphere and wind. The bright, colorful colors are characteristic of the painter's palette, typical of the period 1929-1931, when a more lyrical and impressionistic painter's style replaced the strong colors and angular shapes (expressionism) of the previous years. The power of this painting lies in the perfect interplay of composition, color and brushstroke. Predominant are the cadmium yellow of the road with the purple berm against it and a blue sky above. At the point where the vertical line of the road bends along the horizon, a bright red farm is hidden behind trees. What speaks from this painting is the emotion of the painter for his subject, the beauty of the spacious Groningerland with its fields, ditches and roads and scarce buildings and his pleasure in painting it, translated in color and form. Everywhere you can follow the movement of his brush, sometimes in rhythmically juxtaposed paint strokes, then again in spontaneous, drifting scratches, where he worked the paint with the tip of his brush. This conveys to the viewer something of the painter's emotion for his subject and his desire to quickly and directly bring the perceived image to the canvas, which enhances the expressive power of this landscape. It is known that Dijkstra, perhaps more than the other Ploeg members, felt an intense connection with the northern countryside and had his happiest moments painting surrounded by sun, wind and air.