Stairway and Hall, Hotel Del Coronado 1935 - 1942

Perkins Harnly made this watercolor, *Stairway and Hall, Hotel Del Coronado,* and it's got a real folksy charm. There's a sort of innocent quality to the rendering, like it's all about noticing things with a kind of gentle wonder. I'm drawn to the way Harnly handles light and shadow with a delicate touch. Look how the colors are washed in, creating this luminous effect. It feels like the whole scene is breathing. The attention to detail, like the intricate patterns of the wallpaper, or the rendering of the chandelier, gives the impression of an obsessive act, almost like an outsider artist with a keen eye. And the way he renders the vacuum cleaner and assorted cleaning tools, so mundane and yet so meticulously observed, elevates the ordinary into something really special. Harnly reminds me a bit of Charles Burchfield, another artist who found poetry in the everyday. Both artists invite us to slow down, to really *see* the world around us, and to appreciate the beauty in the unexpected. Art's not about the perfect or the polished, it's about seeing what's there, even the little bits of dust in the corners, and finding a way to make it sing.