Fiskeskitser 1905 - 1907

Here we see Niels Larsen Stevns’ “Fiskeskitser,” a page of fish sketches made with pencil on paper. I can just imagine Stevns sitting by the water, sketchbook in hand, quickly capturing these slippery subjects. There's something so immediate about sketches. The light pencil lines almost feel like an extension of the artist’s thoughts, as they dance across the page, trying to capture the form of the fish. I wonder what he was thinking about as he observed them? The way the lines vary in thickness and pressure gives the sketches a real sense of depth and movement. You can almost feel the weight of the fish. And the cross-hatching, the small details, they really make the forms come alive. It reminds me that painting and drawing are all about seeing. Each mark is a record of that seeing, a translation of the world onto paper.