Silver Beaker c. 1938

Palmyra Pimentel made this lovely drawing of a silver beaker with what looks like graphite. You can see how she built up tone, coaxing out the glints of light on its surface. I wonder what Palmyra was thinking while she was drawing. Was she fond of the object or simply tasked with capturing it? I like to think that the parallel strokes suggest a kind of reverence for the silver, or perhaps the patient hours she spent getting to know this object. She really gets the way light can play across a surface, transforming it into something that feels almost alive. It reminds me of Morandi's still-life paintings of bottles and vases, which aren’t just about rendering an object, but getting to its essence. I like to think that she was in conversation with other artists of her time, maybe even inspiring them to see the world in a new way.