Acht afgemeerde schepen op een strand 1929

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this aquatint of eight boats beached on a shore, and the way the light shifts and changes as it hits the water and reflects off the sand makes me think about the act of image-making itself. Looking at this muted palette, the labor it must have taken to render all these forms, I can imagine the artist being out there on the beach, sketching, composing. It's a quiet scene with all these boats just sitting there, still, like punctuation marks, little pauses in the landscape. I wonder what Schelfhout was thinking about when he made it? Maybe about the relationship between humans and nature? The sea is a source of life and livelihood, but it can also be dangerous and unpredictable. I like the little details, like the way the lines of the clouds echo the shape of the dunes. It all gives a sense of depth and space to the composition. It puts me in mind of other landscape artists, like the Impressionists, who were also trying to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. It all makes me think about how art is just an ongoing conversation, artists responding to each other across time.