Moulin St. Maurice 1902

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan made this etching, Moulin St. Maurice, and it's a real peek into his process. The whole image is built from these tiny, deliberate marks, like he’s thinking out loud with his tools. What I love about etchings is their incredible texture; you can almost feel the plate itself, the way the ink catches on the paper. See how the light shimmers on the water? It's all these little lines doing the work. And those trees, they feel so alive, not because they're perfectly rendered, but because you sense the artist really looking, figuring out how to make a tree with just a few well-placed scratches. MacLaughlan reminds me a bit of Whistler, that same attention to detail, that same love of turning everyday scenes into something poetic. Art isn't about getting it "right," it's about seeing what happens when you try, and maybe stumbling onto something beautiful in the process.