Trivet 1935 - 1942

Charles McLoin created this painting of a trivet, probably with watercolors. It looks like a diagram, but it’s also full of the personality of the artist, and the quiet poetry of the everyday. I think that maybe McLoin was thinking about form and function, and how to represent both. It seems that he worked slowly, building up light washes of color, but it could be that he was impatient and worked quickly! It’s fun to look at this and imagine the making of the work. I’m really drawn to the way that he’s captured the color of the metal: it's rough and imperfect, with a warm and earthy tone. What seems like a simple subject becomes this little gem, because of the particular attention McLoin gave to the object. It shows that painting, like life, is an ongoing experiment, and that each artist is in conversation with those who came before.