Ship's Lantern c. 1942

Arthur Ringold made this painting of a "Ship's Lantern" with watercolor, and I just love the way he's captured its essence! I can almost see him, squinting, brush in hand, trying to capture the way light bounces off that aged metal. There's something so honest about how he's rendered the surfaces, not shying away from the rust or the grime. It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, this lantern has seen some things." The grid of the lantern, rendered with such care, reminds me of Agnes Martin's quiet geometries, but with a nautical twist. You know? I bet Ringold was thinking about more than just how the object looked. Maybe he was thinking about its story, the ships it guided, the storms it weathered. I love that painting can be a way of honoring the ordinary. It's a conversation across time and place, a reminder that we're all just trying to make sense of the world, one brushstroke at a time.