Of all the elements, water may be the most difficult to draw. It flows, it changes, it never lies. This is why the Trieste-based artist Serse, who loves a challenge, set out to render it in graphite. In fact, graphite is his medium of choice, because of its colorless purity. In these drawings he captures the sea’s undulating lines, horizons, whirlpools, and ripples. Perhaps most impressively, he depicts water as it appears when you’re standing waist deep in it. In some images veins over black depths resemble rays of sunshine, while in others waves reflect soft clouds overhead. —E.C.