The Everglades Possibly 1906

Augustus John made this etching, called The Everglades, and it’s all about the process, a kind of frantic energy. Look closely, and you can see how the lines build up, creating volume and shadow with these cross-hatching marks, it's like a shorthand for form. The figures are almost swallowed by the landscape; they’re part of this wild, overgrown place. The ink is like a living thing, crawling over the surface. I keep thinking about how this relates to artmaking, the layering of ideas, building up images from scratch. The lines remind me of those old master drawings, like Rembrandt, that were always a reference point, but with something new and modern, a kind of raw expression. Art is about this conversation across time, we try out new ways of seeing, and always find something unexpected.