Rocks in a Stream 1920

"Rocks in a Stream" was made by Maurice Braun using what looks like colored pencils. There is something really beautiful about using a material mostly seen as one for sketching, to make a finished work. Look at how the marks are laid down, hatched over and over, to describe the different textures of the scene. The layering gives the piece a subtle shimmer, like the movement of the water itself. I think of Cézanne a little bit, in the way Braun builds form with small repetitive strokes. See the large rock in the foreground on the left-hand side of the picture? The way the planes of the rock are described with these cross-hatching marks, is lovely! You could get caught up trying to decide whether this is a drawing or a painting, but isn’t it more interesting to just let it be both? Art doesn’t need to fit neatly into boxes, in fact I think it’s better when it doesn’t!