Skitser af sejlbåde i havet. Plantestudie og notat 1900 - 1905

This page of sketches by Niels Larsen Stevns, is made with pencil and watercolor on paper. It feels like a spontaneous study of both nature and artmaking. The quick, almost hesitant lines describing the sailboats and the sea contrast with the delicate rendering of the plant. The plant's detailed watercolor rendering makes you wonder if it was done from life, a careful observation amidst the fleeting impressions of the sailboats. I love the ambiguity, the conversation between the intentional and the accidental marks. The aged paper adds another layer, its yellowed surface and stains narrating a history of touch and time. It reminds me of the sketchbooks of Paul Klee. Both artists share a playful approach to artmaking, embracing experimentation and seeing art as a field of possibility. There is beauty in the incomplete, the provisional, the ongoing dialogue with the world.