Watchman [sketch for Watchman] 1967

Jasper Johns made this sketch for Watchman with graphite and watercolor on paper. It’s a kind of shadow play here with the bleakness of the grays, like a half-remembered landscape after the end of the world. I can imagine Johns in his studio, circling around these forms, trying to catch hold of something that keeps slipping away. Look how the wash of watercolor bleeds into the paper, soft and yielding against the hard lines of graphite. There’s a tension there, a push and pull between control and chance, intention and accident. Think about what he might have been thinking, feeling, as he worked on this sketch. Was he searching for something? Wrestling with an idea? Or just letting the materials lead the way, surrendering to the unpredictable dance of ink and water? It makes me think about other painters and how we’re all in conversation with each other across time. Painting is not just about making an image; it's about the process of discovery, the act of thinking through making, that’s always felt like the most compelling part to me.