Balchik Street 1930

Francisc Sirato made this watercolor street scene sometime in the first half of the 20th century, and I wonder what it felt like to be him, looking at this street. The colors feel a bit washed, light, summery almost. There's the pinks, blues and greens that kind of remind me of being on vacation. It feels like he was looking at a place that he maybe loved, or maybe he was trying to love it. It’s always hard to know what to make, isn’t it? You can see how the marks sit on the page, layer upon layer. The composition is really interesting. The way the lamp post in the foreground is so boldly painted with charcoal, while everything behind is suggested with thin washes of watery color. Painting is like that, sometimes it's about really grabbing a thing and shouting it out, and sometimes it’s just a whisper. We are all whispering, and shouting, to each other, across time.