Trees in a landscape 1975

Gregoire Boonzaier made this watercolor landscape drawing with thin washes and deliberate lines that really bring out the forms. It feels like artmaking as a conversation, each element responding to the last. There’s a kind of scratchy, raw quality to the surface. The watercolour is washy, almost transparent in places, but the lines of the branches are quite definite. Look at the way the main tree reaches out, its limbs twisting and turning like arms trying to grab something. It's a wonderful balance between control and accident. You can see the artist figuring things out as he goes, almost like a dance. Boonzaier reminds me a bit of Paul Nash, with that similar sensitivity to the atmosphere of a place, and the way he let the landscape breathe on the page. Ultimately, it's about embracing the unresolved, and finding beauty in the questions rather than the answers.