Wooden Sugar Bucket c. 1938

Annie B. Johnston made this watercolour drawing of a wooden sugar bucket sometime in the 20th century, and what I love about it is how much it feels like she’s figuring out the bucket as she goes. There’s this tentative quality to the lines, a kind of searching for the right tone. You can see it in the way the wood grain is rendered, these tiny, flickering strokes that build up the form. It’s so different from the slick, photo-realist stuff you sometimes see, because the materiality is present; the colour is delicate, almost transparent, letting the paper breathe through. The handle especially has this beautiful awkwardness, like it’s been drawn and redrawn a few times. For me, that little bit of uncertainty is what makes the whole thing sing. It reminds me of Alfred Wallis, that other great chronicler of everyday life, and the way he let the wonkiness of things be. It’s a reminder that art is as much about the process as the finished product.