Urn Design c. 1940

This is a drawing of an urn, or rather a design for one, made by Charles Goodwin. He used a kind of muted palette, working mostly in neutral tones. It's like he's thinking through form, figuring out the shape and structure of this object, which I totally relate to as a painter. There is a real sense of the physical here in the way the tones vary, they are light on one side and darker on the other. Look at the hatching which defines the shadow of the main urn shape – the soft grain feels almost like velvet. It reminds me of the urns I saw at Versailles, where the architecture seems to be a conversation between soft and hard materials, the smooth stone against rough foliage. Like Wayne Thiebaud, Goodwin manages to create a visual poetry from everyday objects, finding beauty in the mundane. Ultimately, art is about more than just what you see; it's about how it makes you feel, how it sparks your imagination.