Cabinet c. 1940

Here’s Harry Mann Waddell’s rendering of a Cabinet. He probably drew it with pencil, and then added watercolor paint. I’m thinking about the methodical way it was built up, piece by piece, from observation. I am also thinking about the real cabinet, the original object. I am curious why he choose this particular object to draw. Maybe Waddell was really into the cabinet's structure, the way the drawers and doors line up just so, or maybe the play of light on its wooden surface fascinated him. I feel his interest in this object. The artist has made something new out of something old. We painters are always trying to work out what's been done, what can be done, what else can be done. So in that way we are all drawing cabinets.