Kerktoren c. 1909s

Alexander Shilling made this sketch of a church tower using pencil in a sketchbook, and it's the kind of drawing that pulls you right in. I love how Shilling's mark-making here is all about the essential, kind of like a visual shorthand. Look at the hatched lines, how they build up the form of the tower and the wall next to it. There's a real sense of the hand moving, of the artist seeing and responding in the moment. It feels so immediate, like he's capturing the essence of the place with just a few strokes. And the way the lines vary in pressure and thickness, it's almost like he's sculpting the image right there on the page. This reminds me a bit of some of Giorgio Morandi’s etchings, where he's just trying to get at the core of things. To me, this is what art is all about – that ongoing conversation between artists across time, each finding their own way to see and show the world.