Lake O'Hara and Mt. Lefroy, British Columbia 1930

Horace Prusher made this landscape drawing of Lake O’Hara and Mt. Lefroy, in British Columbia with what looks like charcoal or graphite on paper. I love the way he’s built up this scene with layers of delicate marks. You can almost feel the cool air coming off the lake. The mountains in the distance are rendered with such a light touch, they feel almost like a memory, or a dream. I get the sense he was really present in this landscape, feeling the scale of it, the textures of the trees, and the rocks around the lake. He’s letting the landscape lead the way, and it makes me think of artists like Agnes Martin, who were also interested in the power of suggestion and understatement. It reminds us that drawing and painting, like any art form, is really a conversation, a back and forth between the artist, the materials, and the world around them. We never know exactly what will come out of it. And maybe that’s the point.