Zeilboten op een werfhelling 1906 - 1945

Reijer Stolk made this drawing called Zeilboten op een werfhelling with pencil. I love the way the artist has used the pencil to build up this image from lots of little marks. You can really see the process and that for me is what art is all about, not some end product, but a record of somebody doing something. The texture is amazing; it's almost like you can feel the grain of the paper and the pressure of the pencil on it. The artist uses the contrast between the white of the page and the darkness of the pencil to create an image full of tension. Look at the way the lines zig and zag, creating all these sharp angles and dark shadows. It’s a very physical drawing, it reminds me of an early Cubist work by Picasso or Braque. Ultimately, this is a drawing that embraces ambiguity, it's up to us to decide what we're looking at, and that’s what makes it so exciting.