Ruïnes van het kasteel van Les Baux 1920

This is a pencil drawing of the ruins of Les Baux castle by Philip Zilcken. I wonder what it was like to stand in that place with a sketchbook and pencil and capture the scene? The ruins sit atop a rocky outcrop, and Zilcken uses delicate, light strokes to give the scene a ghostly quality. It's as if the castle is fading back into the landscape that gave birth to it. Pencil work can be so light and airy, and here he’s really captured the feeling of being in a desolate, windswept place, a feeling of the past bearing down. There’s a real sense of inquiry here, where the process becomes a way of seeing and thinking, the back-and-forth between looking and marking a way of finding the subject, the real subject. Drawing is an intimate form of expression. It embraces vulnerability and invites interpretation. Zilcken’s work is a reminder of the ongoing dialogue between artists across time.