Bomschuit op het strand van Noordwijk aan Zee before 1930

Ludolph Berkemeier made this print of a boat on the beach at Noordwijk aan Zee, though I'm not exactly sure when. It's all about line, isn't it? Short, sharp, dark lines, a veritable flurry of marks that build into clouds and a boat. I find myself zooming in on the sail, which has been shaded with incredible care. You can see how Berkemeier has used a tight hatching technique, so that the individual lines are very close together, but there's still an airy lightness to it. This is offset against the very darkest marks, which define the boat itself. Look at the way these marks run every which way, and how this lends the vessel a sense of weight, a deep, dark materiality. It reminds me of some of the etchings of James McNeill Whistler; both artists are capturing a transient moment, but there's also a powerful sense of place, like we could almost be there, feeling the sand between our toes. Art is so often about the feeling. And maybe a little about the place.