Furnaces at Night 1916

Joseph Pennell pulled this print of furnaces at night, and looking at all that thick, velvety black ink, I feel like I can almost smell the soot. You know, when you look at a work like this, it's easy to imagine the artist standing there in the dark, squinting in the heat, trying to capture the scene before him. Did he feel dwarfed by the industrial landscape, or energized by its power? Maybe a bit of both, I guess. I love the way he's used these scratchy lines and rough textures to create a sense of atmosphere. It’s not a literal representation, but more like an emotional response to the scene. It kind of reminds me of Whistler's nocturnes, but with a bit more grit. Artists like Pennell, they're always in conversation with each other, riffing on each other's ideas and techniques. Each mark, each gesture, a record of a fleeting moment. Painting, it's not just about what you see, but about how you feel, how you move, how you make your mark on the world.