Dziewanny 1919

Leon Wyczółkowski made this drawing of Mullein plants in 1919, probably in his garden, with colored pencil. You can almost feel the waxy give of the medium dragging across the paper. It's a super-restrained palette, and the yellow leaps out against the muted greens, grays, and browns. I love how Wyczółkowski handled the plants’ fuzzy leaves, turning them into almost abstract shapes. Like he's thinking about the way light hits the surface and transforms the organic matter into something else entirely. It makes you wonder what he was thinking at the time. Was he trying to capture the specific character of each leaf, or was he more interested in the overall pattern and rhythm of the plant? Did he consider the surface of the paper, and the way the colored pencil would react with it? I imagine that he worked on this sketch very quickly, almost like a snapshot of a fleeting moment. The best thing about painting is that it doesn't have to be perfect. It can be messy, uncertain, and ambiguous. Like a conversation between the artist and the world.