Ornament met plantmotief c. 1916

Reijer Stolk made this plant motif ornament drawing with pencil on paper. Just looking at the marks, I can see the artist building up the image, rubbing it out, going over it again. You can really feel him thinking. Maybe he was working out a design for something else? It feels preparatory, but also complete in itself, you know? There’s something so appealing about the raw immediacy of drawing – the hand, the eye, the charcoal, all working together in real time. It’s like you’re right there with the artist, witnessing their thought process unfold on the page. I wonder what Stolk was thinking as he worked? Was he inspired by something he saw in nature, or was he just playing around with forms? The artist is in dialogue with other images, other artists, and maybe even themselves.