Spur c. 1937

W.J. Goodacre made this watercolour painting of a Spur sometime in the 20th century. It's like a neutral drawing, a study of an object, but the image is so striking! I love the limited palette, almost monochromatic, which really emphasizes the form and texture of the metal. You can almost feel the weight and the sharpness. The artist clearly paid close attention to detail, capturing the subtle variations in tone and the way light reflects off the surface. The spokes fan out and create a dynamic movement. Look at the way the spurs are slightly different, they have a handmade quality. The composition is simple, yet the object itself is so charged with meaning. It reminds me a little of Charles Sheeler's precisionist paintings. Ultimately it is an object of beauty, elevated to an artform.