Baldart Castle, Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland 1892

Curator: What a ghostly scene! It’s… evocative, in a melancholy sort of way. Editor: And what we’re looking at, created around 1892, is William Trost Richards’ work entitled "Baldart Castle, Kilkee, County Clare, Ireland". This drawing, in watercolor, offers an incredible study of natural form. What materials and labor went into the making of the paper support, the production of pigments, their distribution via the aqueous medium? These material concerns give way to deeper inquiry, especially regarding landscape depiction. Curator: I’m sort of lost in the mist; I feel the chill of the ocean spray just looking at it. It’s funny, I don't usually go for seascapes, but there's a wildness, almost a raw scream in those waves crashing against the cliffs, what do you think? Editor: Yes, and Richards’ application of watercolor is very methodical. Notice how the artist creates atmosphere through layers, building texture and tone to suggest the drama of the Irish coastline. The scale of the cliffs is truly remarkable. Consider, too, the availability of images of such places in the late 19th century, how this landscape might figure into larger economic processes like tourism. Curator: True, this makes you think what the artist felt capturing such remote, rugged locales – that little castle perched on top is amazing to look at, a reminder of something solid but distant. I see someone confronting the immensity of nature. The light looks very strange… Editor: It also represents a fascinating historical tension between industry and artistic production. A pre-packaged watercolor set opens up possibilities to practice landscape painting… the rise of leisure activities is so entwined with material consumption, but landscape also remains. Curator: So much so that this image almost transcends a mere picturesque scene. A kind of memory… a kind of feeling is transferred, and perhaps, it becomes timeless. Editor: Precisely, reflecting broader issues concerning representations of place. William Trost Richards offers viewers the natural beauty of our shared home and how that in turn helps develop larger national cultural products. Curator: Thinking about this artwork, and its time... somehow opens up, questions our own perspective and our connection to that landscape… I hope visitors share that… that reflection. Editor: Me, too. From paper production to pigment choices, contemplating such factors adds another valuable lens through which we might appreciate art making’s profound engagement with life itself.