Mechanical Toy c. 1939

This watercolour called *Mechanical Toy* by Gwendolyn Jackson pictures a toy cowboy on a horse. It’s pale and the cowboy’s clothes are patterned. Jackson has really captured that feeling of a childhood toy that has been used, loved and played with in this painting, hasn't she? I like how the paint is washy and thin, almost like a ghost of something once really present. It's like she's trying to grasp something ephemeral, something that’s fading. Perhaps a memory? The toy is clearly a loved one. I'm guessing that the cowboy had a lot of adventures with its owner. I wonder if Jackson was thinking about a real kid and their toy, or was she making this up? Either way, that slight touch of the hand on the horses reigns is so knowing, so gentle. I really feel Jackson in this, the tenderness and quietness of her attention, it’s just so beautiful. And it reminds me that we’re all, in a way, making toys, all artists are toymakers, and that our audience, the public, we're all just kids playing with these ideas.