Candlestick 1937

Ralph Atkinson’s ‘Candlestick’ is a watercolour painting, but when it was made I don’t know. This is just a guess, but from the marks and colour I’d say it was painted some time in the twentieth century. The candlestick is rendered with a kind of fluid, transparent blue. It’s not just one blue, though; you can see how the artist has added subtle variations of tone, layering washes to build up depth and form. This gives the candlestick a delicate, almost ethereal quality, like it’s made of light rather than glass. I love how Atkinson uses the transparency of the watercolour to suggest the translucence of the glass, letting the light filter through and create subtle shadows. What strikes me about this image is that it’s a painting of an object, yet the way it’s painted, it seems like a study of light and colour. It makes me think of the way Giorgio Morandi painted bottles, not so much about the thing itself, but about the possibilities of painting. Isn’t that amazing?