Haven van Volendam 1912 - 1918

This is Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp’s ‘Haven van Volendam’, made without colour using a variety of marks on the printing plate. It shows an interest in mark-making, which, for me, is where so much of the art is. You can tell it's an etching because of the fineness of the lines, and the way they describe the forms so precisely. There is an almost obsessive quality to the detail in the buildings and boats. The etching medium allows him to render textures with such detail that, for me, he almost gets away with using no colour. Look at the individual strokes Nieuwenkamp uses to create depth and shadow. The lines are incredibly delicate. Even with this intricacy, you can still see how his hand moved across the plate, the pressure he exerted, the rhythm of his marks. Artists like Giorgio Morandi, famous for his etchings of bottles, spring to mind, as they share a similar dedication to process and a love of line. Ultimately, it's that ambiguity and the invitation to look closer that keeps me coming back.