Ornamental Iron c. 1936

Gilbert Sackerman painted this lovely watercolour, called Ornamental Iron, at some point in his long life. I imagine him dabbing the paper with a wet brush, coaxing out the pale colors of the facade and the dark green of the iron. It’s a quiet scene. I can feel the sun on the steps, imagine the shadows cast by the decorative ironwork. I can almost see the artist, carefully mixing his paints, trying to capture the delicate balance between light and shadow, the interplay of textures and forms. There’s a certain stillness in the way he’s rendered the scene. And isn’t that the beauty of painting? How it slows us down, invites us to see the world with fresh eyes? Sackerman wasn’t trying to make a grand statement, but rather to capture a fleeting moment, a quiet corner of the world that caught his eye. In this painting, he immortalizes it.