Wooden Chair c. 1938

Clyde Cheney made this watercolor of a wooden chair, and it's got me thinking about the beauty in simple things. It’s like Cheney’s saying, hey, look at this chair. The color is the thing that gets me, this dreamy, muted green that feels both fresh and faded, like it’s been sitting on a porch for years. And the way he’s layered the watercolor, you can almost feel the grain of the wood beneath. There’s a particular spot on the armrest where the green deepens, becomes almost shadowy, and it gives the whole thing a sense of depth. It makes me think about the way we see, how a simple shift in tone can change everything. It reminds me a little of Fairfield Porter, the way he found the extraordinary in the ordinary. Art, I think, is about finding those moments, those slivers of beauty that we might otherwise miss. It's not about answers, it's about questions and the way we keep looking.