Fugleskitser 1900 - 1904

Here's a page of bird sketches made by Niels Larsen Stevns, likely with a graphite pencil in a sketchbook. I imagine Stevns, out in nature, trying to capture the fleeting movements of birds in flight. There's an immediacy here, a real urgency to get something down quickly. The lines are so light and free, you can almost feel the breeze and hear the birds chirping. Look at that cluster of marks suggesting a bird’s wing. It's not about perfect representation, it's more about catching the essence of movement. It makes me think about Twombly and his scribbles, how he could convey so much with so little. These sketches show a kind of freedom and playfulness that artists share with each other across time. The kind of making that is always about seeing, thinking, and feeling your way through the world. They remind us that painting and drawing are always, in some way, a form of embodied expression.