Zoar Colander c. 1937

Fritz Boehmer made this watercolor of a Zoar Colander and we can see the care he takes with the humble object. The drawing itself is so precise, but it's the texture he coaxes out of the brown paint that really grabs me. The layering of the washes make a beautiful and quite subtle tonal variation, creating depth and form. Look closely and you can see the faint white halo where it sits on the surface. What I love is the way the repetitive pattern of holes at the bottom of the colander are rendered with such precision. Maybe this is the artist embracing the everyday, finding beauty in the mundane. I can almost see the water dripping through. It reminds me a little of Morandi’s bottles, in its quiet, contemplative way, and the love given to rendering a utilitarian object. It is this rendering of a simple object, elevated by the act of drawing, that resonates.