Evening at Lake Kinereth 1925

Jakob Nussbaum created this watercolor, Evening at Lake Kinereth, with fluid washes and delicate strokes. Look closely, and you’ll notice how the paint seems to bloom across the paper. The texture isn’t about a heavy impasto, but about light, air and capturing a transient moment. It reminds me that artmaking is a process, a dance between intention and chance. The colors are muted, subtle blues, purples, and grays, giving the scene a dreamlike quality. See how the water is rendered with horizontal strokes, suggesting movement and reflection. Then there's the way he’s dabbed the paper to suggest the pebbles on the shore. It’s economical, yet it conveys so much. That little clump of lavender-gray brushstrokes in the lower left corner. It's a microcosm of the whole painting, a balance of control and letting go. Nussbaum's delicate touch is a counterpoint to someone like Emil Nolde, who used watercolor in a much more expressionistic way. Both, however, remind us that art is about embracing the beauty of ambiguity.