Nithsdale 1911

This is Nithsdale, an etching by David Young Cameron, and with etching, it’s all about the line, right? I think there’s something so cool about the way that he has used these very simple marks to create a sense of depth. Looking at the foreground, you can almost feel the texture of the earth, like the furrows of a freshly plowed field. The lines are confident, and even though it’s a landscape, there’s something very intimate about it, like he’s capturing a place he knows really well, not just what it looks like, but what it feels like to be there, you know? It’s kind of like a love letter, with just a few elegant lines. It reminds me a little of Whistler, who also explored the possibilities of etching to create these moody, atmospheric scenes, but Cameron has this groundedness, maybe because he trained as an accountant, who knows?