Kaap Espartel, Marokko Possibly 1902

Jac van Looij made this drawing of Cape Spartel in Morocco, with graphite or something like it. Look at the scratching of the marks, one after another. I feel like he was just there, quickly, trying to get the feeling of the atmosphere, the gloominess of the day. The tiny boats bobbing around. I bet he was thinking about how to show it, using the least amount of marks to evoke a place. There is a real feeling of immediacy to it, the way he has used directional marks to suggest the surface of the water. The whole thing is about mark-making, about seeing how little you can do to say so much. A lot of the old masters did drawings like this - a record of a place, an idea, a moment in time. It reminds me that art is a conversation, an exchange of ideas, a way of seeing.