Toy Train c. 1940

Robert Clark made this watercolor painting, *Toy Train*, at some point in his lifetime. It has a real freshness about it, don't you think? There's something so compelling about the way Clark approaches his subject here. Look at the almost brutal handling of the red paint, chipped away to reveal what seems to be another layer of color beneath. It's as if he's not just depicting a toy train, but also its history, its use and abuse, the many hands that might have held it. Notice that one of the train's carriages has a different shade to the others, perhaps it was added later. The simplicity of the forms and the somewhat limited palette give it a timeless quality, like a memory fading at the edges. You know, it reminds me a little of some of Fairfield Porter's paintings, in the way that Porter found profundity in the everyday. Like this painting, art is about embracing uncertainty and knowing that there is never really one single way to see something.