Zacharias House and Ein Karem (from Sketchbook) 1904

Mary Newbold Sargent made this pencil sketch of Zacharias House and Ein Karem sometime in her life. The quick, light marks feel like she's trying to capture the essence of a place, not just its appearance. It's all about the process, the immediate response. Look at how she suggests the trees—just a few scribbled lines and loops, but somehow they're totally trees. The mountains in the background are even more minimal, just a few sweeping lines. There's a lightness to the whole thing. It’s a whisper of a place, a memory. The surface of the paper is smooth, allowing the pencil to glide effortlessly. In the lower left, her handwritten note adds a personal touch, a sense of intimacy. You can almost feel her sitting there, sketchbook in hand, soaking it all in. Sargent's sketch reminds me a bit of some of Agnes Martin’s landscapes, in its quiet simplicity. It's like they're both after something beyond the literal, an echo of a feeling. Art, after all, is just an ongoing conversation, a way of seeing and feeling that keeps evolving.