Shop Figure c. 1939

John W. Kelleher made this shop figure, of course, on paper and with watercolour. The surface is fairly smooth, but the colours are applied in a layered way. There's a real sense of build up and process to the picture, almost like watching him figure out the figure as he goes. The subtle washes and details make the colours glow, while the little imperfections seem to bring the figure to life. Look at that jacket, it's a brown check, almost like a chess board, or a harlequin's costume, this playfulness is part of the overall charm of the piece. The material aspects - the paper, the watercolour - all work together to create this kind of dreamlike presence. It reminds me a little of Philip Guston, with the way he made the ordinary seem so weird. It's like a folk memory, an idea of a person, an afterimage. I love art that embraces ambiguity like that, where there's no one single way to interpret it, but the possibilities seem endless.