Pulpit 1940

Hal Blakeley made this watercolor painting of a Pulpit at an unknown date. Look at the detail of the patterns! It’s all about how these shapes and colors come together. Art is, at its heart, a process of arranging things, trying to make something out of the chaos. You can almost feel the texture in this image, even though it's just watercolor on paper. Notice the little details, like the gold trim and those delicate patterns on the paneling. It’s not about perfection; it’s about the hand of the artist, the slight wobble in the line that brings it all to life. The paint is applied in thin washes, allowing the paper to peek through. This gives the painting a luminous quality, as if the pulpit is glowing from within. This piece reminds me of Hilma af Klint’s architectural drawings, which were also about creating sacred spaces through color and form. Like Hilma, Hal’s drawing is an ongoing conversation, where ideas are exchanged and transformed across time. And that’s what art is all about, isn’t it? Embracing the questions, the ambiguities, and the endless possibilities.