Skitse af bygning og løse rids 1906

This small sketchbook work, by Niels Larsen Stevns, shows a couple of building sketches and some loose scribbles in pencil. I imagine Niels, sketching away, trying to capture something he saw, maybe on his travels – those angular buildings at the top – or just doodling, letting his mind wander while his hand moved across the page. The cross-hatching of the paper adds a structure which contains and repeats the various marks and shapes. What really strikes me is that lower image – is it a reclining figure, or some kind of snarling beast? It feels so raw, like a glimpse into his subconscious, a little like Picasso’s sketches, or Cy Twombly’s scribbles – a direct, unfiltered expression. Stevns was clearly using the sketchbook to work through ideas, and to record observations. It's all part of the same impulse, that drive to make marks, to see what happens when you put pencil to paper. It reminds me to stay playful in my own practice, to embrace the unexpected.