Schets van paddestoelen 1878 - 1943

Willem van Konijnenburg made this sketch of mushrooms, probably on paper, with graphite or a similar drawing material. I love that you can see the artist working through a composition, feeling his way through shapes. It's like he’s hunting for the form of the mushrooms with his pencil. The lines are tentative, searching. I can almost see him there, in the forest, crouched down, squinting at these fungi, trying to capture their essence. Those looping lines above, are they trees? Are they just abstract scribbles? I like that it’s hard to tell. It reminds me of Twombly in a way, this freedom and playfulness with line. Drawing, like painting, can be about finding, not just depicting. It's a conversation with the subject, a dance between seeing and imagining. It’s never really about the thing, but the feeling of the thing, that is transmitted through this drawing.