Instinct at 82

"The hurricane has just hit," wrote John Marin after a big blow in 1944. "The Seas are Glorious--Magnificent--Tremendous--God be praised that I have yet the vision to see these things." Watercolorist Marin, then almost 74, was spending his summer as usual on the Maine coast. Last week the wry, spry old master proudly showed the world that his vision is still as sharp as ever.

On view in a Manhattan gallery were 27 oils and watercolors, all done in 1952: autumn hillsides, foaming seas and cockleshell boats, apple blossoms, circuses. As usual, he had worked with a light brush: a few lines for a fishing boat, a scattering of calligraphic squiggles to capture the rolling anger of The Written Sea. And no matter how fluid the motion, each picture had the "balance" Marin strives for. "Think of the wonderful balance of squirrels," he says. "I like my pictures to have that kind of balance."

Manhattanites flocked to the show, eager to pay their respects and up to $6,000 for a sample of the old man's magic. John Marin himself bobbed up for an hour to see how his pictures looked on the gallery wall, then hustled back to his paintboxes. At 82, he still tramps the countryside on good days, looking, studying, sketching. People sometimes ask him how he keeps his eye so clear and .fresh. "I can't tell," he says. "It's mostly instinct."

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