Rejseregnskab. Herover uidentificeret skitse 1900 - 1904

This sketchbook page with an unidentified sketch and handwritten notes was made by Niels Larsen Stevns. Imagine him with his pencil, quickly capturing a figure, maybe in a café, or on a train. The lines are tentative, searching, almost like he's thinking out loud with his hand. The writing dances around the drawing, numbers and words becoming part of the composition. It’s all about capturing a moment, an idea, a feeling, with the most basic of means. There’s a real intimacy here. It makes me think about how sketchbooks are like personal diaries, filled with raw, unfiltered thoughts. I can almost feel the energy of the artist in that moment of creation, the urgency to record what he sees and feels. Stevns' reminds me of other artists like Cy Twombly, who mixed drawing and writing. All artists are in a conversation with each other – a big, messy, beautiful exchange of ideas across time. Painting lets us embrace that ambiguity, finding new meanings each time we look.