Charles Basin Motif #1 1936

Donald Carlisle Greason made this drawing with pencil on paper. I imagine him working outdoors, trying to capture the feeling of the Charles Basin. Look at the quick, light strokes he uses to sketch the industrial landscape and the water. You can almost see the artist's hand moving swiftly, trying to capture the scene before the light changes or the feeling fades. There is a sense of immediacy. The lines are thin, almost tentative, but they come together to create a sense of place. He’s playing with layering and depth. The whole surface is activated, with marks and notations, which gives us a sense of his thought process as he translated what he saw into marks on paper. It’s like a fleeting moment frozen in time. It reminds me that art is like a conversation, an exchange of ideas across time. Each artist builds on what came before, adding their own voice to the mix.