Boerderij met rieten kap 1907

Alexander Shilling made this drawing, "Boerderij met rieten kap" with pencil on paper. I look at this drawing and feel how the pencil moves, and think about mark-making, and how just one line and then another can be the beginning of the whole world. I imagine the artist standing there in the sun, squinting, deciding where the edges of the roof are, then hatching lines, one by one. But what is mark-making anyway? It's a kind of thinking; an idea is made from lines and the building emerges from that idea. So this isn't just a building, it's a way of seeing; it’s a way to know and understand the world. We know that Shilling was inspired by his peers and by his predecessors, a conversation between artists in ink and paint. He shares this vision with us, who, with open hearts and minds, will see the world in our own way too.