Quietude 1938

Charles M. Capps made this etching called Quietude, and the first thing I notice is a tonal range of beiges and browns. I am imagining Capps, bent over the plate, pushing the tool to create many fine lines. It's a subtraction process, removing material to build an image in reverse. I feel like I’m standing in the sun-drenched landscape, trying to absorb all that quiet. There are layers of reality in the landscape, receding into the distance. The surface has a dry, almost dusty feel, which makes me think about the dryness of the environment and the artist's sensitivity to place. It’s so different from the slickness of a photograph! You can feel Capps’s love of the everyday, connecting him to other artists who find beauty in ordinary things. It's a reminder that making art is about seeing and feeling, then translating that into marks. It’s not just about the finished image, but about the connection and exchange between the artist and the world.