Sun Bonnet c. 1938

Wilford H. Shurtliff made this watercolour painting of a Sun Bonnet. The simple motif is rendered in monochromatic shades of blue. It must have been a quiet, contemplative act, to make a painting of an ordinary object like this, almost like a meditation. I can imagine Shurtliff carefully mixing his blues, diluting them with water to create the soft, translucent washes that define the form of the bonnet. You can almost feel the delicate fabric and the intricate ruffles through the artist's gentle touch. There's a real softness here, a kind of tenderness in the way the light falls. I’m thinking of other artists who find beauty and meaning in the everyday, like Giorgio Morandi with his still-life paintings of bottles, or the abstract painter Agnes Martin who was also interested in quiet contemplation, and the power of soft colour. Artists are always talking to each other across time, using colour, form and composition to create their own languages. Painting is a way of embodying experience, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty and allowing for endless interpretations.