Mistral

From the Trade Winds series, palms on paper. Each painting is titled after a real named wind. The palms are bent, blurred and interrupted by movement, so the true subject is the air rather than the tree: invisible forces made visible. A cold, dry wind that funnels down the Rhône valley to the Mediterranean. It can blow for days on end, bending the cypresses and scouring the sky to a hard, brilliant blue. Painters have followed it to Provence for centuries, for the light it leaves behind. Sold framed (19¾ in square).