Drie vissers in de haven 1925 - 1941

Leo Gestel made this drawing of three fishermen in the harbour with ink on paper. The approach to mark making is so direct here! It's all about capturing the essence of the figures with these bold, confident lines. Artmaking as a process is right there on the surface, immediate and unfiltered. Looking at the physicality of the ink, you can almost feel the pressure of the artist's hand as he moved across the paper. The lines are thick and opaque. You can tell it was probably a brush or a pen with a good amount of ink. It's all about the gesture, the movement, and the energy of the artist. Notice the faces, each one seems to capture something of the man's soul. Gestel was working around the time of Kirchner and Schmidt-Rotluff. The directness of mark and clear emotive force reminds me a little of their portraits. But art is an ongoing conversation, right? A dance of ideas across time. There's no one right way to see it.