Untitled (Scene in Provincetown, Woman with a Bucket) c. 1920s

This is an etching by William McGregor Paxton, showing a scene in Provincetown with a woman carrying a bucket. It's all lines, every surface is made of them, laid down with a kind of dedicated intensity to catch the light. There's something humble about the way the cross hatching describes form and texture. And that simplicity – it's compelling. Look at the way the lines build up the shadows around the woman, or how the laundry hanging overhead is just *there*, part of the fabric of the place. It's all about getting to know a place through its everyday details, almost like a meditation. It reminds me a little bit of the etchings of Whistler, that same interest in capturing the fleeting, atmospheric qualities of a scene. Like, how do you catch that feeling of being *in* a place with just a few marks? I think that Paxton’s printmaking here really does capture the feeling of the location. It shows art as an ongoing conversation.