Altar Rail Gate c. 1939

Manuel G. Runyan made this watercolor painting of an altar rail gate. It's just lovely, isn't it? The way Runyan coaxes depth from brown and beige, like he's trying to capture not just the gate, but the feeling of wood itself. The surface of the paper is so smooth and pale and the paint has been applied in layers, I can see how the texture of the grain is allowed to come through. If you look closely at the upright on the left, you can almost trace the artist’s hand moving over the paper, each stroke building up a sense of dimension and weight. I'm reminded of Agnes Martin and her deceptively simple lines that seem to contain so much. Like with Martin, Runyan invites us to slow down, to really look, and to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. It's a quiet, meditative piece, proof that sometimes the simplest things can be the most profound.