Candle Sconce c. 1936

This is a watercolor painting by E. Boyd of a Candle Sconce. Imagine Boyd hunched over this piece, the watery paint bleeding into the paper, making sharp spear-like shapes. The painting surface is alive with patterned textures. It's like Boyd is trying to trap light on the page. It's almost like a dance, an intuitive push and pull between control and chance. You get the sense that the shapes emerge out of the process of painting, each stroke leading to the next in a kind of visual conversation. Boyd must have been thinking about how light and shadow play across surfaces and how the object might function as a focus for contemplation. There’s a rawness here, an authenticity that resonates with the work of outsider artists and folk traditions. It’s like he's riffing on the work of other object makers. Painting is like that, an ongoing dialogue across time and space. We learn from each other. We steal from each other. We inspire each other.