Gulls and Spray 1942

Eva Auld Watson made "Gulls and Spray" as a woodcut print, and what grabs me right away is how she uses these flat planes of color to suggest something really dynamic. It's like she’s distilled the scene down to its basic elements, and in doing so, brings a certain energy to it. You can almost feel the cool, salty spray of the waves against the rock and the air rushing under the birds' wings. It's not about photorealism, it's about the sensation of being there. The way she layers the blues and greens reminds me of Hokusai's prints, with their stylized waves and sense of movement. There’s this one bird diving right at you, and you can see the white of its head, the curve of its wing, rendered in simple, powerful shapes, which really pulls the whole composition together. Ultimately, Watson invites us to experience nature not as a static scene, but as an ongoing performance.