Onweersbui 1913

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this print called 'Onweersbui' - 'Rain Shower' - in 1913. Look at all that dark ink! It's a flurry of marks, a real storm of lines, that come together to conjure a village crouching under an angry sky. I can imagine Schelfhout working on the plate, digging in, wiping away, coaxing out the light from the darkness. What was he thinking as he worked? Was he remembering a particular storm, or was he trying to capture the feeling of a storm? I love the way the houses huddle together for safety, and the way the trees seem to bend and sway in the wind. It reminds me of some of the graphic work of Munch - that same intensity of feeling, that same sense of the world pressing in on you. It’s all about the surface, the texture, the way the ink catches the light. It’s physical, it’s emotional, and it's a reminder that artists are always in conversation with each other, riffing on each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what paint - or in this case, ink - can do.