Laan met aan weerzijden bomen te Kleve 1905

Carel Nicolaas Storm van 's-Gravesande made this drawing of trees in Kleve with pen on paper. Look at the hatching, how the artist uses layers and layers of these tiny marks to build up the image. I can imagine him outside in the woods looking at the light filtered through the trees, deciding where to start, and moving the pen slowly across the page. It's easy to assume it’s just a picture of trees, but look closer. It’s about mark-making and translating something you see into another medium. It's about the artist trying to capture a feeling. The pen strokes become the leaves and branches, but they also create texture and depth, almost like he’s carving the image into the paper. This reminds me of other drawings and etchings by artists who were trying to capture a similar sensation. Artists are always in conversation with each other, even across time and place, influencing one another's ideas about what a drawing is and can do. Ultimately, it’s about how we see and translate the world around us through art, embracing the ambiguity and uncertainty inherent in that process.