Cathrin À L’ancre, Mouillage De Kermarquer 1925

Paul Signac created this watercolour of Cathrin À L’ancre, Mouillage De Kermarquer, with fluid lines and vibrant washes on a light ground. I can almost feel the artist, Signac, standing there on the shore, quickly capturing the scene. The scene shimmers with light and movement, all those dabs of blues and greens, pinks and mauves, make the painting sing. I imagine him thinking, "How do I capture the essence of this place with just a few strokes?" Those sketchy lines of the clouds communicate such a sensation of movement. The painting feels like a conversation between the artist and the landscape, a dance of observation and interpretation. What does it mean to moor a boat, to linger, in this place? Like his pointillist paintings, Signac allows us to perceive the world in a new way, built from marks of colour that communicate a whole.