Bloem c. 1916 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this quick sketch, called Bloem, with pencil on paper. The thing about drawings is that they show you the artist thinking. Look at the flower head: Stolk isn't just showing you a flower, he's showing you how he *sees* a flower. He's feeling his way around the shapes, superimposing one petal over another. It's like he's turning it over in his mind. The line work is light and airy. The stem, stripped back to its bare bones, looks like a spine. There’s a tentative, searching quality to the marks. This reminds me of the botanical studies of someone like Leonardo, or maybe even the fantastic plant forms that appear in the background of a Max Ernst painting. But ultimately, it's all Stolk: a personal kind of seeing.