Finger Bowl 1935 - 1942

John Tarantino made this 'Finger Bowl', and you can see how he used watercolor to bring out the deep purple of the glass. I can imagine him in his studio, carefully layering those colours. It reminds me of when I first started painting. I was so impatient, always wanting to get to the end result too quickly, but watercolor demands a kind of slow looking. You have to consider how the colours will react to each other, and how the light will move through the layers. The way Tarantino captures the form of the bowl – it's almost like a flower, isn't it? It makes me think of other still life painters. There's a conversation happening across all these artworks, each artist riffing on the same themes of light and colour. Painting is just a way to capture what is in your world, and I think there's so many ways to do that!