Salt Shaker 1935 - 1942

This watercolour of a Salt Shaker was made by Wellington Blewett, who lived from 1855 to 1955. Looking at this artwork, I imagine Blewett carefully mixing his paints to achieve just the right shade of grey. He probably built up the form slowly, with layer upon layer of thin washes. It looks like he’s carefully considered how light reflects off its glass surface. What might he have been thinking as he painted it? Perhaps he was intrigued by the way the light caught the contours of the faces, or the intricate details of the lid. I wonder if he laboured to capture these details. Notice how the use of shading creates a sense of depth and volume, bringing this ordinary object to life. Painters are always responding to each other's work across time, and I see in Blewett’s delicate touch and attention to detail an echo of earlier watercolourists. Blewett reminds us of the enduring power of painting as a form of expression, to appreciate the beauty in the everyday, and find new ways of seeing the world around us.