Chair (painted) c. 1937

Lillian Causey made this painting of a chair, using watercolor, at an unknown date. Looking at this picture, I'm struck by the kind of attention someone pays when they’re really *seeing* something. The painting is awash in earth tones, like a sepia photograph, and the way she renders the highlights on the chair, gives it a certain sheen and tactile quality. The light coming from the left makes the chair solid, real. Notice how the artist used thin washes of color, building up layers to create depth and form. The way the paint pools and settles in certain areas, gives the piece an almost photographic quality, like the chair exists in a nostalgic haze. It reminds me of Fairfield Porter, with that same attention to the ordinary, but elevating it through careful observation and paint handling. It shows us that art is just as much about the process of looking as it is about the thing itself.