Toleware Tin Cannister 1937

Donald Humphrey made this Toleware Tin Cannister as a watercolour painting on paper. It shows the kind of decorative flourishes that you’d find on old metalware. I can see how the painting almost emerged, shifting and solidifying through trial, error, and intuition. Just imagine Humphrey, contemplating the cannister, figuring out how to capture its essence on paper. Maybe he was thinking about the original artist who painted the cannister, their own artistic choices, and how the colors and shapes come together. The surface has these bold strokes of orange, red, and green. It's not about perfect representation, but about feeling and the physicality of the medium. That single stroke of orange, forming a petal, is so full of intention. You can see the artist's hand in it. Humphrey lets us into the conversation between artists across time. The painting is so loose, it embraces ambiguity and uncertainty.