color mezzotint
1998
2 1/4 x 2 1/4
edition: 50
signed in pencil
An older couple sits on a beach facing the sea as a shooting object streaks through the sky. There is a feeling of connection and contentment conveyed through the imagery. Does the title refer to the nature of the couple's long and loving relationship? Does it refer to actual magic happening in the sky? This is a miniature image that carries a powerful feeling. Anne Dykmans employs her superb command of engraving techniques, especially mezzotint, to create a special light which brings out the beauty in the simplest of everyday subjects – a chair, a ribbon, the beach. In addition to the beauty of form and light, she also creates evocative sensations. Critic Roger Pierre Turine has written that “the subject is of little importance. All that counts in Dykmans’ work is that halo of light that surrounds it; that moment of solitude, never foreign to us as long as we are able to discover those same images within ourselves. She approaches her commonplace realities gently, yet there is always a brilliance in her work, ever accentuated by the subtle play between the possible nuances from black to white.”
