Fromborg, Poland 1972

Petros Malayan painted this scene of Fromborg, Poland, sometime in the 20th century using watercolour. Imagine him standing there, brush in hand, capturing the somber mood with strokes of blue, brown, and muted green. You can almost feel the dampness in the air, the quiet of the scene. Those boats pulled up on the shore, they have a weight to them, don’t they? Notice how Malayan simplified their forms, focusing on the play of light and shadow? He's also using watercolor in a very particular way, opting for broad washes to create depth and atmosphere. It makes you think about the artist's process. The intentionality, the sensitivity of the touch. Perhaps he was influenced by earlier landscape painters, or maybe he was just trying to capture a fleeting moment, a feeling, and the essence of the place.