Wolken boven water 1921

Carl August Breitenstein made this expressive sketch, Wolken boven water, in graphite on paper. It's all about light and movement, as if the artist were trying to capture something fleeting, like a half-remembered dream. I’m always thinking about process, and I'm imagining Breitenstein, rapidly layering graphite to get those hazy cloud forms, pushing and pulling the values. Look at how he renders the clouds—some soft and billowy, others darker and more ominous. I can almost feel the breeze and smell the salty air. The city buildings in the background are just a quick, scribbled line, anchoring the sky and water. It reminds me of some of Constable's cloud studies, where he was just trying to get the feeling of the sky down on paper as fast as possible. There’s such immediacy and freedom in the way he worked. Artists, you know, we’re always in conversation with each other across time. It's like a big, ongoing jam session.