At the Hammersbach 1911

Fried Stern painted this watercolour At the Hammersbach, and I wonder what it might have been like for her, standing there in front of that scene. The ink lines, kind of scratchy and loose, give you a sense of the quickly changing weather in the mountains. I can imagine Fried Stern dabbing at the paper with a wet brush, trying to catch the light as it shifts across the landscape. There’s a looseness to the whole thing, like she’s not trying to control every detail, but rather let the painting breathe and find its own way. Look at the strokes for the clouds. See how the blue ink bleeds? It must have been a wet day, but the mountain looks solid, still. It reminds me of other painters, like Emil Nolde, who were also wrestling with how to capture the feeling of nature, not just its appearance. It's like they’re all in this big conversation, sharing ideas and inspiring each other, even across time. Painting becomes a way to keep the conversation going.