Clegyr-Boia II (Landscape in Wales) 1936

Graham Sutherland made this etching, Clegyr-Boia II, of the Welsh landscape. It's all about mark-making, the lines wriggling and scratching their way across the plate. They remind me of how landscape is always in motion, growing, decaying, reforming. It’s never static. Look closely, and you can see how Sutherland uses different kinds of lines to create texture and depth. Some are thin and delicate, others are thick and bold. See that big, egg-shaped form in the foreground? The lines around it are almost like a cage, or maybe roots, holding it in place. There's a tension between the light, open space inside the egg and the dark, tangled lines surrounding it. It's like a metaphor for the way we try to contain nature, even though it's always bursting at the seams. Sutherland reminds me of Samuel Palmer, another British artist who was obsessed with landscape. Both of them found something mystical and unsettling in the natural world. It’s about embracing the unknown, allowing for multiple readings and feelings, rather than trying to nail things down.