Zeegezicht nabij Ajaccio before 1903

This is Philipp von Schoeller's "Zeegezicht nabij Ajaccio," made in 1845, using... well, it's hard to tell from here, but it looks like ink on paper. Can you see how Schoeller is feeling his way into this landscape? I can just picture him, squinting at the light as he’s trying to capture the feeling of that hazy coastline. There's something about the mark-making – the way the ink is applied so thinly in some areas and built up in others – that makes me think about the materiality of the medium itself. It's like he's pushing the ink around, seeing what it can do, how it can evoke a sense of place. It's a dance, a conversation between the artist and the world, each influencing the other. You know, all artists are in conversation with each other, riffing off each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. And it reminds me that painting isn't about capturing a fixed idea but is more about a process of exploration, where ambiguity and uncertainty are part of the game.