Curtis Fledglings 1931

Wayne L. Davis made this etching, Curtis Fledglings, with such a light and open touch. It’s all in these delicate lines that give us the sense of planes soaring, almost dissolving into the sky. Look how Davis uses etching to capture the weightlessness of flight. There is a real sense of depth created by the overlapping of the two planes. The more distant of the two is paler, hazier. The planes themselves are rendered with a meticulous eye for detail, yet the surrounding sky and landscape are left open, suggestive. The softness of the clouds, rendered through these hazy, almost smudged lines, contrasts with the crispness of the planes. This reminds me of the aerial photographs that Gerhard Richter used as source material for his paintings, except here, in this much earlier work, there’s a real human touch, a sense of wonder. There's no attempt at a definitive statement, just a fleeting glimpse, captured with a quiet kind of reverence.