Twee paarden en een veulen in een landschap 1928

Leo Gestel made this watercolor, "Two Horses and a Foal in a Landscape," on paper at an unknown date. It's all about process, right? Looking at this, you can see how the paint is kind of scrubbed into the paper, like he's trying to get to the essence of "horse." The colors are muted and earthy, creating this hazy, dreamlike feel. See how he's used thin washes of paint, so the colors blend and bleed into each other? It's like he's not trying to define the forms exactly, but more to capture the feeling of them. The way that foal is all soft edges, almost melting into the landscape? It's less about how it looks, more about how it feels to look. Gestel's work reminds me a bit of Franz Marc, especially how they both use animals to explore emotions and ideas. It’s less about perfect shapes, and more about the conversation, the ongoing exploration of what art can be.