Landschap met bomen 1872 - 1939

Egbert Rubertus Derk Schaap made this landscape with trees using graphite on paper. It’s all about touch, isn't it? The way the graphite softly blooms, like a memory. Looking closely, you can see how Schaap coaxes the graphite to dance across the page. Not every line is precious; some are light and fleeting, others dark and sure. It's like he’s building the image stroke by stroke, feeling his way through the scene. There is real tenderness in the marks used to describe the foliage, a softness I recognize in my own process. That’s what drawing is for, really: feeling your way into a scene, discovering something about how you see. This reminds me a little of the quietude in Agnes Martin’s drawings. Ultimately, it’s about art as a conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist, the medium, and the world. It’s about the questions, not the answers.