Chest of Drawers c. 1938

This is Arthur Johnson’s ‘Chest of Drawers’, made with watercolour, graphite, and coloured pencil. What I find so wonderful about this image, is how Johnson renders the most intricate aspects of the piece. Those ornate patterns, repeated four times, would have taken real patience. Look at the way he has rendered the wood. The graphite softly swirls and moves like the currents of a river, the way wood grain does. And the texture created with watercolour is quite different from that of oil or acrylic. It's interesting to consider all of the painting practices that go into an image like this. I think of artists as being in an ongoing conversation across time. So when I look at this, I think of Van Gogh's ‘Bedroom in Arles’ and how he also takes the everyday and turns it into something extraordinary. Maybe Johnson was inspired by Van Gogh? Either way, these works invite you to think about the objects that surround you.