Sugar Bucket c. 1941

Ardella Watkins created this subtle drawing of a sugar bucket, but when we don't know when! It’s rendered with a delicate touch, a real labour of love, using watercolor or colored pencil on paper. The drawing is mostly brown monochrome and it seems simple, yet it possesses a kind of magical quality. The bucket, which appears very life-like, seems to stand alone in space. I love the way Watkins used the tone of the brown to define the form of the bucket, and the way she picked out the wood grain, and the way the light falls on the handle. It's all there, like a miracle! Watkins's reminds me of those early American primitive portraits - that loving, careful attention to detail, and like those artists, Watkins understood that the most humble objects can be beautiful, and that art is everywhere.