Pad richting een boerderij 1923

This is Alexander Shilling’s sketch, made with what looks like a graphite pencil or charcoal. I can almost feel the artist, quickly but attentively mapping out the path to the farm. Look how Shilling uses these repetitive marks to create a sense of depth. He creates the sun with just an empty circle. He lays down the weather and the farm with only a few lines. It is kind of awesome actually, how he makes something so quickly and gets so much down at once, but it also makes me wonder what it would have been like to be there in that moment with Shilling, watching him try to capture what he sees. How do you convey what you see, when there is not that much there? The artists who came after Shilling have looked to these works as permission to be bold and brave.