At the Hammersbach 1911

Fried Stern made "At the Hammersbach" using watercolour and ink, and you can really see the process in the finished work. I love how the ink lines are so present – they don't just define the shapes, they also create this sense of movement and energy. Look at the way she's used the blue ink in the sky, hatching it to create depth and a feeling of atmosphere. Then notice how the green wash of the watercolour creates a contrast between the sky and the landscape below, and the brown wash creates a sort of mound in the mid-ground. The texture is so beautiful, especially in the way the ink bleeds into the paper. It reminds me a little of Emil Nolde, who also had this amazing way of capturing the feeling of a place through colour and mark-making. Ultimately, art is just an ongoing conversation, and Fried Stern is a voice I'm glad to have discovered.