Tall Clock c. 1938

Ferdinand Cartier made this watercolour drawing of a tall clock sometime in the 20th century. The way he’s handled the brown tones, varying the shade slightly across the surface, makes me think about the slow, additive process of applying washes. I love the way the grain of the wood seems to emerge from the surface as you look, like a pattern slowly resolving itself. See how the artist used these subtle variations in colour to suggest both the play of light on the clock’s surface and the inherent qualities of the wood itself? The overall effect is less about photorealistic depiction and more about an emotional rendering of the object in question. And how about that tiny flourish of a tree or a lightning bolt running down the centre? It reminds me of the work of Forrest Bess, where naturalistic observation butts up against abstract mark-making. It’s a reminder that art isn’t just about what we see, but also about how we feel and what we imagine.