The artwork titled “Ocean Limited” by Alex Colville, created in 1962, is a prominent piece within the Contemporary Realism movement and falls under the genre of genre painting.
The artwork depicts a solitary figure walking alongside a golden field, with a train in the background suggesting movement and travel. The man, dressed in a dark coat and hat, strolls through the serene, undulating wheat fields, with a train track visible higher up in the composition. The train, with its modern, streamlined design, evokes a juxtaposition between human scale and the industrial progress symbolized by the locomotive. The use of muted colors and the stark details in both the figure and the field highlight the realism intrinsic to Colville’s work. The scene carries a sense of quiet reflection, capturing both the simplicity of rural life and the encroaching elements of modernity.