Vissersdorp te Madura 1868 - 1941

Adolf Mangold made this watercolor painting of a fishing village in Madura. I can imagine Mangold, out in the open air, carefully mixing his pigments with water, testing the consistency, coaxing the paint across the surface. Look at the thin washes of color he’s applied, one layer on top of another. The sandy hues of the beach, the light blue of the water, the pale, washed-out sky. The image feels calm, still, like time is moving slowly. The strokes are delicate and precise. There's a lightness, a kind of transparency, in the way the colors blend together. The paint is so thin you can see the paper underneath, like a veil. I like to think about how one artist looks at the world and then tries to make a mark that captures what they see. I wonder, what was Mangold thinking as he painted those palm trees? Artists are always in conversation with each other, across time and space. Painting is so embodied, so personal, and so open to interpretation. It’s a conversation without end.