Crock c. 1937

Ada V. May made this watercolour painting of a crock at some point in her long life, the last few years of which she lived to be a hundred. The way May builds up the tones and textures in the body of the crock reminds me that painting is a process of layering, like glazing a ceramic pot perhaps? Looking closely, you can see that the colour is applied in thin washes, allowing the paper to breathe through the image. It’s a quiet, unassuming painting. There’s a real tenderness in the way the artist has handled the subject matter, making a humble domestic object worthy of contemplation. See the slightly smudged lines of the pot’s opening, and the delicate, almost hesitant application of pigment around the base. This painting reminds me of the still lifes by Giorgio Morandi, another artist who found endless inspiration in the subtle gradations of tone and colour in everyday objects. Like Morandi, May seems to suggest that there's beauty and meaning to be found in the simplest of things.