Zeilschip aangemeerd aan een kade in een baai 1900 - 1931

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this graphite drawing of a sailboat docked in a bay in his sketchbook. Look at the left page, with its scribbled marks, and the other page, with the recognizable, solid form of the boat. It’s as if we can see Tholen's mind at work, a dance between abstraction and figuration. I can imagine him sitting there, squinting at the scene, trying to capture not just the boat, but the feeling of the water, the light, the whole atmosphere of the place. This is all about quick observations and the energy of mark-making. The boat emerges from a tangle of lines that almost dissolve into the surrounding space. Artists are always talking to each other, even across time. Tholen’s sketch reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation, an exploration of seeing and feeling that never really ends.