Dorp met molen en kerk in heuvellandschap 1924

Jo Bezaan made this landscape print of a village with a mill and church in 1924. Look at the way Bezaan uses hatching and cross-hatching to build up tonal variation and suggest the forms of the landscape. The making of a print is a slow and meticulous process, mark by mark; it's almost meditative. The composition is really interesting, with a road snaking up the hill, drawing your eye into the middle ground. Notice how the texture of the fields changes as they recede into the distance. The marks that make up the thicket in the foreground are dense and chaotic, in contrast to the parallel lines on the road, giving a sense of depth. I love the dramatic sky, and how the dark clouds loom over the village, creating a slightly ominous mood. There's something of M.C. Escher in the way Bezaan uses perspective, but where Escher is all about formal tricks and puzzles, Bezaan is more concerned with capturing a sense of place. Ultimately, art is about exploring different ways of seeing.