Zeilboot 1890 - 1946

This is Cornelis Vreedenburgh’s pencil drawing of a sailboat, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. I like to think about what an artist is thinking as they stand before a subject, pencil in hand. What is he trying to see? The pencil lines are tentative, searching. Vreedenburgh isn't just copying what's in front of him, he's trying to understand the structure of the boat, the way the sails catch the wind. Those lines create a kind of architecture. There's a real sense of looking and feeling and trying to capture the essence of a sailboat on paper. The whiteness of the paper becomes the negative space around the boat, the space where wind could rush through. It's a simple sketch, but it’s full of potential energy. It reminds me of the Dutch Masters and their seascapes. Artists are always talking to each other, across time. I wonder what Vreedenburgh would think of my paintings?