Bishop Hill: Desk 1936

Alfred Koehn made this rendering of a Bishop Hill desk with watercolor, and I love the way he let the color seep into the page. It reminds me that making art is really just a process of building up layers, of not being afraid to let the colors mix and mingle. See how Koehn captured the texture of the wood? He built up the tones with thin washes, like glazing a painting, and it feels like he wanted us to see the ghost of the grain. I mean, there's something really beautiful about how he used the color to mimic the feel of the wood. The shadows on the drawers, the way the light hits the edge of the desk. It's all about catching those fleeting moments, those little details that make something feel real. It almost reminds me of Agnes Martin's subtle color fields, where the beauty is in the simplicity and the quiet attention to detail. Ultimately, art is about inviting us to see the world in new ways, and Koehn did that in spades.