Baptismal Font and Stand 1939

This watercolor, "Baptismal Font and Stand," was made by Hal Blakeley, sometime between 1855 and 1995. I love the directness of it! Blakeley puts down the geometry of the baptismal font and stand with a clear intention, carefully layering color to build volume and shadow, without fussing too much over the details. What was he thinking as he painted this? Maybe he was interested in rendering the object's form with simple techniques of line and tone. Or perhaps he just loved the red and black pattern—that pop of color is very satisfying, the symmetry, too. The way Blakeley has approached the object reminds me of other early modernist painters—like Cezanne, who was obsessed with reducing natural forms to their most basic geometric structures. Blakeley’s artwork is so precise in its imitations! It’s cool to see artists, across time, experimenting with how we see and depict the world around us.