Landschap – Keignaertkreek te Zandvoorde 1931

Léon Spilliaert made this watercolor painting of the Keignaertkreek landscape in Zandvoorde with a palette of muted browns, greens, and creams. The artwork feels so open, it’s as if the painting has become a window looking out onto a vast landscape. I can imagine Spilliaert, standing in the middle of this field, squinting to see the lines of the horizon, and then leaning over the paper to apply the watercolor washes, one after the other, in thin layers to build up the image. The paint is thin, transparent, and watery. It almost feels as if the field has been stained or dyed onto the page. Look at the way he uses simple shapes to suggest the buildings on the left and the delicate lines of the tree on the right, silhouetted against the flat landscape. Painters learn from each other through these gestures, and each painting becomes a lesson for the next. It's an ongoing conversation, and we can all participate by just looking closely, and thinking about what we see, and feel.