Roeiboot met twee mannen bij een waterput in een rivier 1907

Willem Cornelis Rip made this small drawing of a rowboat on a river with graphite on paper. Just looking at it, I feel like I can sense the artist making marks, trying to capture the essence of the scene. There's this kind of beautiful, direct simplicity to it. You see the windmill in the background, the way it emerges from a series of scribbled lines. It reminds me how much seeing the world is about feeling, about letting your hand move and your eye follow, like a dance. I think about what it might have been like to be Rip, sitting there with his sketchbook, trying to capture the light on the water. It makes you wonder about the tradition of landscape drawing, like this quiet conversation that painters have been having with each other for centuries. Turner, Constable, all these people looking at the world and trying to figure out how to put it down on paper. Anyway, I hope this picture inspires you to make some marks today.