Landscape Fantasy with Rocks 

Tomás Joseph Harris made this fantasy landscape with rocks using ink on paper. A humble material, perhaps, but look at the tremendous range he achieves. Harris was born in London, but his mother tongue was Spanish. He worked as an interpreter during the Spanish Civil War, then served in British Naval Intelligence. This drawing was probably made during that time. If you look closely, you can see the methodical use of hatching and cross-hatching, which gives both form and texture to the rocks, foliage, and turbulent water. It’s an approach typical of printmaking, or even the graphic arts. In fact, Harris became a professional dealer in prints, which are of course artworks made for wide distribution, and affordable consumption. He undoubtedly appreciated their qualities, and the amount of labor involved. He shows us here that such a humble process can be pushed to surprising levels of artistic expression.