Vignet met distel 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this small drawing of a thistle, using ink on paper. What was he thinking when he made this little doodle? I imagine him playing with line, letting the ink flow to create these shapes. It's a vignette, so it's like a fragment, a small window into his artistic process. I see it as an experiment, a little exercise in seeing and mark-making. The thistle is stylized, almost symmetrical, with these spiky projections shooting out from the center. I'm drawn to the way the ink pools in certain areas, giving weight to the lines, while others are thin and delicate. It reminds me of the way artists use sketches to work out ideas, how they might zoom in on a detail of nature and abstract it into something new. It speaks to a sense of play and exploration, reminding us that even in the smallest of gestures, artists are constantly engaging with the world around them and with each other's creative expressions.