Havengezicht in Harlingen met stoom- en zeilschepen. c. 1903

Frits Freerks Fontein Fz. made this photographic artwork of a Dutch harbour, probably sometime around the turn of the century. I like to imagine the act of painting itself— how this photograph came into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition? I sympathize with the artist and imagine what it might have been like to create. What might he have been thinking when he made it? The tones are almost entirely sepia, like an old memory slowly emerging from the deep. The soft, muted palette evokes a sense of nostalgia and melancholy, drawing us into the artist's subjective experience of the scene. It’s all about texture, surface, and the physicality of the medium, all shaping our experience and contributing to the emotional and intellectual resonances of the work. Artists are in an ongoing conversation and exchange of ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression which embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and meaning.