Surrey Downs c. 1915

James McBey made this pen and ink wash drawing, Surrey Downs, with such a lightness of touch, such a delicate touch. You can see in the sky, the way that he's built up the form of the cloud with these tentative, almost hesitant marks. It's like he's feeling his way into the image, thinking through the process of artmaking. And that's what I love about looking at drawings like this, you know? You get to see the artist thinking. The strokes aren’t overworked, but they're very descriptive. They make you feel the weight of the stone structure in the middle-ground, they give a sense of depth and distance to the landscape, they make you feel like you can almost touch the sheep. And the texture of the paper shines through it all. Look at the little patch of scribbled marks in the top left corner. For me, it’s like a tiny abstract painting within the larger scene. Maybe it’s a bit like the way that Constable used clouds as a kind of emotional shorthand, or maybe it’s just McBey playing, you know, experimenting with form. This playful experimentation reminds me of Manet and all the sketchers of modern life. Either way, it’s a reminder that art is an ongoing conversation, full of questions and possibilities.