Zonder titel Schets vignet voor biografie van Gestel door Van der Pluym, gezicht op Woerden met daarboven een hand die reikt naar een gevleugeld palet 1935 - 1936

This drawing was made by Leo Gestel, and it’s a sketch for a vignette for a biography. It shows a view of Woerden, with a hand reaching up towards a winged palette. What a curious image! I imagine Gestel, pen in hand, hovering over the paper, trying to conjure the spirit of the artist in a few deft lines. The hand, so large and looming, seems to want to grasp that winged palette, as if trying to seize inspiration from the heavens. The town itself is rendered in a simplified, almost childlike style. It makes you wonder if this work is about the yearning for creative expression, or the struggle to capture the essence of a place or a person. I like that the hand and the palette feel kind of surreal. Gestel is in dialogue with earlier artists who had their own ideas of what art should be. This exchange reminds us that art making is about having the freedom to play and experiment. It’s about embracing ambiguity and uncertainty!