Skitser af traner og ugle 1900 - 1905

This is a page of sketches of cranes and an owl by Niels Larsen Stevns, likely made with graphite and watercolour. Look at these birds emerge from almost nothing. Niels Larsen Stevns coaxes these forms out of the page with incredible economy, a line here, a smudge of colour there, enough to conjure a whole creature. The colour seems barely there, but it’s doing so much work, adding weight and depth and just a touch of the uncanny. Note how the strokes have a life of their own, refusing to be entirely representational, insisting on their presence as marks. It’s like watching a thought take shape. It reminds me of Twombly, but with feathers. You know, how sometimes, when you’re drawing, the best thing you can do is almost nothing at all?