Cock Weather Vane 1935 - 1942

Flora Merchant made this "Cock Weather Vane" and I can totally relate to her process. It’s all about that iterative dance of adding and subtracting, you know? Like, she's laid down these grey washes that give the rooster this kind of sculpted, almost ghostly presence. There's a deliberateness to each mark. Look at how the feathers are defined, it is all about surface, the way the pigment sits. It's so controlled, but you still feel the hand, the process, the way that she's observed the form of the rooster and translated it onto the page. It makes you think about how to represent volume with just flat colour. It reminds me a bit of Giorgio Morandi's still lifes, which aren't necessarily a direct influence, but both artists use a limited palette to explore form and light. Art's this ongoing conversation across time, and there's always room for ambiguity and interpretation.