The landscape in a few strokes 2017

Alfred Freddy Krupa made this painting with ink, probably in one fell swoop. He called it, *The Landscape in a Few Strokes*. I think of the artist with his brush, loaded with ink, making one continuous, jagged line, sort of like a seismograph needle. The brush dances across the paper, leaving a trail of concentrated black pigment, like the memory of a feeling. Look how the ink bleeds into the fibrous paper, creating soft edges and subtle variations in tone. I can imagine Krupa wanting to capture the essence of a landscape with the fewest marks possible. It reminds me of Chinese ink painting, where artists aim to capture the spirit of nature through disciplined brushwork. I bet Krupa looked at a lot of that stuff, and maybe he was thinking about the way a single gesture can evoke a whole world of meaning. It’s like he’s saying, "Here's how to feel a mountain, with just a flick of the wrist."