Slakken en een krab c. 1916

This sketch by Reijer Stolk features snails and a crab, probably made with graphite pencil. It's all about the wandering line, isn't it? I can almost feel Stolk's hand moving across the paper, gently coaxing these creatures into being. Look at the tentative, searching quality of the lines. You can sense him figuring it out as he goes along, tracing the spiral of the snail's shell, capturing the scuttling energy of the crab. It’s all about feeling it out, a real-time exploration of form and movement. I can imagine Stolk observing these little critters, sketchbook in hand, trying to capture their essence. He is trying to pin down a sense of liveliness; the shapes suggest an awkward, creeping dynamism. Artists are always looking at each other's work, whether they know it or not. Like the Surrealists. The beauty is in the searching, not necessarily in finding.