A single stalk of wheat bends under a weight it should not be able to hold. A field mouse clings to it, small and total, its whiskers lit from behind by one hard source of light. Around it there is only black, deep and unbroken, the kind of darkness that seems to have swallowed the whole world except this one small act of holding on. The light falls from above, sharp and theatrical, the way it would fall on a figure in an old master painting. It finds the fur, the curve of the stalk, the fine grain drifting through the air like dust that has not yet decided to fall. Nothing softens the contrast. The black stays black, the light stays hard, and between them, this one small life keeps its grip. There is something quietly monumental in that grip. A field mouse is not built for survival on this scale, not against wind, not against the size of the dark around it, yet here it is, still holding, still whole. The image asks a simple question without ever raising its voice: how much can something so small carry, and for how long. No paint. No print. No ink. The mouse, the stalk and the light that finds them both are scratched into the surface of the acrylic glass, built through controlled scratches rather than anything added on top. The image is always there, present in full, even in flat light. What changes is depth. Under a harder light the scratches catch and hold it, the contrast deepens, the grip tightens. Move around the work and it reads differently from every angle, without ever losing the animal at its center. Light does not create this image. It sharpens it, the way attention sharpens a small thing you almost missed. Seen from across a room, it is one dark, held breath of a scene. Close up, it dissolves into a field of fine controlled damage, a surface worked until an entire creature and its small defiance emerged from it. A Small Life Holds On continues the Art with Scratch series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through controlled surface damage rather than pigment or print. A visual language where damage is not destruction, but structure. "Some things hold on simply because letting go was never an option." About Art with Scratch Art with Scratch is a body of work in which the image is not drawn, but released. Carved line by line into a deep black surface, each work emerges through countless precise scratches that catch the light and bring form out of darkness. From a distance, the image appears almost photographic. Powerful, recognisable and full of presence. Yet up close, the work dissolves into a dense field of individual marks. Fine, fragile and almost weightless. What seemed solid reveals itself as a delicate web of lines, each one a deliberate gesture, each one essential to the whole. Light does not create the image. It sharpens it. The black surface absorbs, while the scratched lines reflect. As light shifts across the surface, the image breathes. From one angle the figure stands clear and defined. From another it softens and settles back toward the darkness from which it came, without ever disappearing. Under a focused spotlight, the contrast deepens and the image takes on a sculptural, almost luminous quality. What makes this medium so compelling is its quiet tension. The act of scratching is direct and irreversible. Every line is a decision that cannot be undone. Yet the result is not harsh. It is intimate, atmospheric and alive with movement. Hardness becomes softness. Destruction becomes creation. Absence becomes presence. In works such as this portrait, the figure is never fully fixed. Through the interplay of line, light and shadow, the image shifts with perspective and atmosphere. At certain moments, the subject seems to step forward out of the black. At others, it settles back into stillness. It is within that movement, between sharpness and calm, that the work comes alive. Like all materials touched by time, the surface carries its own quiet life. Each scratch holds a moment, a breath, a gesture. Together they form not just an image, but a presence, one that continues to reveal itself with every change of light. About the Artist My name is Tijs Dragtsma, founder of TD Fine Art Studio. As an artist, I am driven by a constant desire to explore new visual languages. I do not see art as a fixed style, but as an evolving field of discovery where material, structure, light and emotion come together. My work often begins with a simple question. How can a material speak in a new way. How can hardness become intimacy. How can precision create emotion. That search lies at the heart of everything I create. Within TD Fine Art Studio, each body of work is approached as its own world, with its own logic, atmosphere and visual identity. Some works are built through rhythm, repetition and structure. Others emerge through absence, shadow, reflection or tension. What connects them is a shared commitment to originality, clarity and emotional presence. I am fascinated by contrast. Between strength and fragility. Between control and feeling. Between what is visible and what is left open to interpretation. My goal is not simply to make an image, but to create a work that holds attention, invites reflection and continues to reveal itself over time. TD Fine Art Studio is the space in which these explorations come together. It is not only a studio, but an evolving artistic universe shaped by curiosity, precision and the ambition to create work that feels distinctive, intentional and alive.