Card Case c. 1940

Daniel Marshack’s watercolor shows us a card case, rendered in a palette of warm wood tones, set against a plain background. I wonder what kind of paper he used? Did he have to stretch it first? I'm really drawn to the detail around the edges, that blue line defining the border of the case, offering just a little contrast. I can imagine him working slowly, carefully building up these layers, and holding his breath. Maybe Marshack wasn’t trying to make a big statement. Maybe he just liked the quiet contemplation of observing this simple object. I think painting a small thing like this can be incredibly intimate and profound. It's like a love letter to the everyday. It reminds me of some of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, which were also just quiet observations of simple objects. You know, it's funny how painting, across all these years, connects artists through time, each learning and borrowing from one another in this ongoing visual conversation.