View in Glasgow 1920

Robert Austin made this drawing, View in Glasgow, with graphite on paper. It feels like he was trying to capture something fleeting. I love the quick, light touch he uses, sketching out the buildings and figures with a kind of delicate precision. You can almost feel him standing there, squinting in the Glasgow light, trying to get it all down before the moment passes. The domes and towers in the background, they look so solid, so permanent, but his lines are so tentative, like he knows it could all disappear in a puff of smoke. It's like he's saying, “This is Glasgow, this is what it feels like, right now.” And I feel like that's what drawing can do, capture a moment in time.