Zeegezicht before 1912

Joseph Edouard Van Looy made this little etching, 'Zeegezicht', without a date. The work, in blacks and grays, whispers of the sea, but it also hums with the act of mark-making. I can almost feel Van Looy, etching tool in hand, coaxing those dark lines to life, building up the waves and the sky with a confident, quiet energy. You know? I feel such a kinship with artists who work like this; the physical, grinding engagement with materials, the process of translation… I wonder, did he stand at the shore, squinting at the horizon, trying to fix that fleeting moment? Or did he work from memory, from an image held tight in his mind's eye? Either way, the sea he’s captured feels both vast and intimate, a personal encounter. Just like painting, really. We're all in conversation, across time.