Chair 1935 - 1942

Francis Law Durand made this watercolor rendering of a chair – when, we don’t know. But I love to imagine the process of creating a painting, how it comes into being, shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with the artist, imagining what it might have been like to create. What might they have been thinking when they made it? It’s easy to forget that painting is a physical process. Look at how the wash of color stains the paper, so thin it lets the surface breathe. See how a single stroke can communicate so much feeling, intention, and meaning. Durand shows the chair in full but also abstracts the component parts for further study. Artists are always in conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring each other's creativity. And painting, as a form of embodied expression, embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.