Zeilende boot c. 1905 - 1920

Willem Bastiaan Tholen made this drawing of a sailboat with pencil on paper. It's all about the process, you know? Seeing the world and then re-seeing it again through the tip of your pencil. What gets me is how Tholen uses the pencil to create depth. The water is all these little, choppy lines, but then the sky is softer, smudgier. Like he’s feeling the difference between the wild sea and the open air. Look at the way he's scribbled the boat itself. It's not precise, but you get the sense of its bulk, how it sits heavy in the water. Tholen reminds me of James McNeill Whistler, another artist who loved capturing these quiet, in-between moments. But where Whistler goes for dreamy abstraction, Tholen keeps one foot in the real world. It’s like he’s saying, "I see you, boat. I see you, sea. And I'm not going to pretend I know exactly what you mean.”