Birch trees at the edge of the forest 

Jakob Maurer made this drawing of birch trees with graphite and colored pencil. It's a combination of readily available materials, humble stuff, and that's part of its appeal. The support, the paper, is a mid-tone grey-brown. This allows Maurer to work reductively, using graphite to build up the darker tones of the forest interior, and colored pencil to add highlights and texture to the birch trunks and foliage. The visible strokes give the landscape an immediacy, as if caught in a fleeting moment. The drawing has an unpretentious quality, and it almost feels like something that anybody could do. Yet, there is something so skillful in the handling of these ordinary materials. With so few lines, he evokes the atmosphere of the forest. It serves as a reminder that even the most basic materials, when wielded with skill and sensitivity, can produce extraordinary results.