Ontwerpen voor Iseger met plantaardige motieven voor aardewerkdecoratie en ontwerpen voor enkele vazen, bekers en bakken Possibly 1920 - 1929

Here is a graphite on paper artwork of botanical studies for ceramic decoration and designs for vases, cups, and bowls by Theo Colenbrander. What a fantastic puzzle this sheet presents! Just picturing Colenbrander’s hand moving across the page makes me smile. It is as if the artist were conjuring forms out of thin air. I love how one motif bleeds into another, with each delicate line suggesting a potential shape, a possible direction. The artist seems to be playing a game of visual hide-and-seek, inviting us to decipher the hidden meanings within these organic forms. Maybe he felt like he was conversing with Matisse, thinking about how to flatten form, or Klee, conjuring playful shapes? It reminds me that we artists are all in conversation across time, inspiring each other with our weird little ideas. Like echoes bouncing around a cavernous studio, we pick up on each other's signals, transforming them into something uniquely our own. This graphite drawing is more than a design; it’s a window into the artist's playful experimentation, and how we all learn from one another.