Richard Ziegler

Richard Ziegler had a knack for making everyday scenes feel quietly magical. He painted in watercolor, a medium that lets colors bleed and blend like ink on wet paper, and his brush stayed light on the page. His watercolor Die Schöne Metzgerin, a woman behind a butcher’s counter, looks like a snapshot, except the colors hum with a life you don’t expect from a grocery scene.

Tap into that painting and you’ll see what he could do with almost no strokes: a face half in shadow, a slab of meat glowing pink.