Wall Painting 1936

Robert W.R. Taylor’s watercolor of a Wall Painting gives us this glimpse into the built environment of the past. The walls are creamy and off-white, and the archway is decorated with folk motifs and rendered in a limited palette of blue, tan, and red. I wonder about Taylor standing there painting this, how he built up the washes of colour, how the brushstrokes felt in his hand, and what he made of this place. I imagine he felt some curiosity about the site and the passage of time. The texture of the paper shows through the paint, giving it this dry, matte finish. The pigment seems more embedded than lying on the surface. The composition focuses on the door, left slightly ajar, which pulls the viewer into the scene, and I can imagine stepping through the painting to arrive somewhere. The painting has a dream-like quality, which makes me think about how artists make paintings out of memory, imagination, and even longing.