C Flight Machine Cracked on Hangar B 1918

Frank Johnston made this image of a crashed airplane in pastel and charcoal, and you can feel the hand of the artist in the marks, as he coaxes this scene into being. I imagine Johnston standing there, charcoal in hand, thinking about weight and gravity. I'm sure it was not easy trying to capture the broken geometry of this machine, but with his marks, he creates a delicate dance between chaos and control. The gray sky looms over the scene, heavy with a kind of melancholy. But despite the somber palette, there's a quiet beauty in the way Johnston renders the scene, the rough texture of the pastel almost giving a sense of rebirth. It's a conversation between the artist, the subject, and us, the viewers, across time.