Jar c. 1937

John Tarantino created this watercolour painting of a jar, but we don’t know exactly when. I’m immediately drawn to the blue hues that Tarantino has used. They are so gentle. Just look how the colour seeps into the paper, it makes the jar's surface almost shimmer. You know, there is something deeply human about painting something like this - so ordinary! I wonder what he was thinking about. Perhaps, the jar was an object he saw everyday in his own home. The woman with the bonnet is a curious touch, so delicately rendered. It reminds me a little of the way Fairfield Porter painted his domestic life. I imagine Tarantino slowly building up the tones, each layer sinking into the fibres of the paper. The surface almost feels like skin, soft and porous. There's a dialogue happening here, a quiet conversation between the artist, the object, and the paper. It’s a testament to the timeless act of looking and translating what we see into something new.