Zeilboten c. 1916

Reijer Stolk made this drawing with pencil on paper, it’s called Zeilboten, which means Sailboats in Dutch. You can really feel the hand of the artist here, right? It's so immediate. The lines are searching, tentative, like he's thinking through the image right in front of us. Look how the sailboats are just suggested, barely there, while the face in the foreground is more defined, but still fluid. It’s like a study in contrasts, a quick sketch where he’s trying to capture a fleeting thought. The pencil strokes are raw, unpolished, exposing the artistic process. I love that he hasn't tried to hide the marks. This reminds me of Picasso’s sketches – that same feeling of a mind at work, ideas flowing onto the page. Ultimately, art is about embracing the unfinished, the imperfect, the spaces in between. It’s not about answers, but about asking questions.