Kolding havn 1902 - 1903

Niels Larsen Stevns made this drawing of Kolding harbour with graphite on paper. It looks like he's figuring things out, the whole process is laid bare. You can see him thinking with the pencil, feeling his way around the forms. There's something so immediate about drawings, isn't there? You can almost see the artist's hand moving across the page, the way he uses lines to create a sense of depth and atmosphere. Notice how he captures the light reflecting off the water and the buildings with just a few simple strokes. And the texture of the paper itself becomes part of the artwork. The scribbled lines of the boat almost become pure abstraction. For me there's something very freeing in this. It makes me think of Marsden Hartley, another artist who wasn't afraid to leave the evidence of their process right there on the surface. To embrace the unfinished, to suggest rather than dictate.