Elementary School Bell 1935 - 1942

Gerald Transpota painted this 'Elementary School Bell' on paper, using watercolor. I can almost see him now, carefully mixing those subtle browns and greys, trying to capture the light on the metal. It’s funny, because even though it's just a bell, it’s also about shapes, isn't it? That perfect circle of the wheel against the curves of the bell itself. I wonder what Gerald was thinking about when he painted it. Was it a memory from his childhood, or just a fascination with the object? It reminds me a bit of those industrial drawings, you know, where the artist is really trying to understand how something works. But here, it’s softer, more personal. Painting is like that; we're always borrowing from each other, trying to figure things out, one brushstroke at a time. There’s no one right answer, just different ways of seeing.