Studie 1923

Alexander Shilling made this sketch called 'Studie', and well, what can I say—it’s faint, it's pale, it's almost not there, but it’s there. I can imagine Shilling with his sketchbook, maybe outside, trying to capture something fleeting. The marks are so light, almost like he's whispering onto the page. It makes me think about the ephemeral nature of seeing, how we grasp at impressions that fade as quickly as they appear. What was he studying? What caught his eye? Maybe it was the way the light hit a certain spot, or the subtle shift in the landscape. It’s easy to overlook something so subtle, but that's also its power. Shilling invites us to look closely, to really see what's there, and maybe even find something that wasn't there before. That's what painting does, it’s an invitation.