Field Water Keg c. 1940

John Price made this watercolor on paper of a field water keg, and when you look at it you can sense the quiet observation he must have given over to this object. The palette is simple – brown wood, darker handles, grey metal bands, and a pale ground. It seems to float on the paper. I imagine John going back and forth, carefully describing the object, and then adding something more—a bit of himself. He was working out how the light catches the form, and how the cylindrical shape curves in space. The wood grain and the color variations in the metal bands suggest the passage of time. John is in conversation with those makers—the ones who constructed the water keg. He seems to want to honor their craft. And now he is in conversation with us. We look and we learn.