Seth Thomas Clock (?) c. 1940

J. Herman McCollum made this watercolor and graphite painting, titled "Seth Thomas Clock (?)," at an unknown date. Look at the ways McCollum used different brown shades to depict the clock's wooden surface, it almost feels like you're seeing layers of history, like tree rings telling a story of time. I can imagine him carefully layering the washes, trying to capture the essence of a familiar object. Maybe McCollum was fascinated by how we measure and perceive time. Or maybe he just liked clocks! There’s something appealing about the challenge he took on as a painter, capturing all the intricate details of the clock's face and mechanics, the kind of quiet concentration that's a beautiful act of translation. And how does it speak to other depictions of clocks in art history? I guess artists have always been obsessed with time, and this is just one more meditation on its passage, made visible through paint.