Old Houses 1920

Hélène Guinepied made this image of old houses in 1922, likely using watercolor and ink. It’s kind of a sketch, right? There’s a lovely looseness to the way Guinepied applies the paint. I love the way she renders the wall with these horizontal marks that suggest both a surface and the individual stones it's made from. The paint is applied in thin washes, allowing the paper to show through in places. You can see the lines made with a pen or a small brush, defining the edges of shapes and adding detail to the architectural forms. It’s a technique that leaves a lot to the imagination. This reminds me a little of the work of Raoul Dufy, another artist who used watercolor and line to capture the fleeting impressions of modern life. Like Dufy, Guinepied seems less interested in precise representation than in conveying a sense of atmosphere and feeling, but in Guinepied's own expressive language. Ultimately, "Old Houses" is a reminder that art is often about embracing ambiguity and exploring different ways of seeing the world, inviting us to look beyond the surface and discover new possibilities.