Stad in Spanje 1903

Here's a work on paper by Wijnand Otto Jan Nieuwenkamp, called "Stad in Spanje". The whole scene looks like it has emerged from a prolonged period of intense looking, of walking with eyes, and of imagining a place. I love the textures here. I imagine Nieuwenkamp, hunkered down, cross-hatching the landscape with ink, mapping the city with these patient marks. The city itself is perched on the top of a dramatic hill, with a winding road that connects to the ancient bridge. What was he thinking when he made it? Maybe he was trying to capture the essence of this city, its history, its relationship to the land. The artist’s hand has danced lightly here and there to conjure a distant place! It reminds me that artists are always in conversation with each other across time, always inspiring each other’s creativity. Painting, like all art, embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations rather than one fixed reading.