Earthenware Roasting Pot c. 1938

Einar Heiberg made this earthy rendering of an earthenware roasting pot using watercolor. It looks like he built up the forms with lots of thin washes, really soaking into the paper. There’s something about the way the paint settles into the paper that gives it a warm, inviting feel. The colors are all in the same family – browns and tans – but they shift and change depending on how the light hits them. You can almost feel the weight of the clay and the heat of the oven. I'm drawn to the little bobbles around the rim, like the artist took time to relish the details. It reminds me that artmaking is about process, not just product. I see echoes of Giorgio Morandi in Heiberg’s work, in his focus on simple, everyday objects. Both artists transform the mundane into something beautiful and profound. And that’s what art is all about, right? Finding new ways to see the world around us.