Carpet Stretcher 1935 - 1942

Howard Lumbard painted “Carpet Stretcher” in watercolor. It's basically brown and grey on a beige-ish background. I’m thinking about Lumbard, imagining him looking at this humble tool, probably with a sense of respect and maybe affection. There's this hammer-like part, and then this long wooden thing, all rendered with such care. The watercolor is thin, almost transparent in places, letting the paper breathe through. I mean, who paints a carpet stretcher? It's kind of like Wayne Thiebaud painting cakes, right? Taking something ordinary and turning it into something worth looking at, something beautiful even. There’s an almost ghostly quality. Painters like Fairfield Porter also found beauty in the everyday. Lumbard is part of this tradition of seeing potential for art in the mundane. It’s all about how we look, what we choose to see. Painting helps us see the world differently; it's an ongoing conversation, a way of sharing how we experience things and inspiring new perspectives.