Chest c. 1938

Margery Parish made this small watercolour, of, well, a chest, sometime during her long life, and it's just lovely. I mean, just look at that colour palette, muted earthy tones, drawing you in close, like a comforting whisper. The thing I love about this painting is how Parish embraced the materials, allowing the texture and colour of the watercolour to seep through. The little wooden circles on the front feel like they were drawn with such care. I’m drawn to the way the artist captured that dark mark on the side of the chest, near the top, giving the piece a sense of lived-in history. It’s the quiet details that speak volumes. It reminds me a bit of some of the folk art I've seen, a simple beauty in the everyday. The beauty of art is that it’s never really finished, is it? Just like life.