Native Pine Box 1935 - 1942

E. Boyd created this painting of a Native Pine Box, using watercolors. Looking at the image, I imagine Boyd circling the form, feeling the dark ground and the light of the birds and the flowers. There's a real sense of them building up the image through thin washes, letting the colors pool and blend, as if the painting is itself blooming. The way the lines are laid down, so carefully, really speaks to a deep knowledge of folk art traditions. The image resonates, too, with the tradition of artists copying from other artworks. It's a learning process, a conversation across time and space, where the artist's hand interprets and re-presents what they see, adding their own voice to the chorus. You get the sense that this box is a form of embodied expression, a place for Boyd to explore his ideas about painting, about seeing, and about feeling. And, ultimately, it's an invitation for us to do the same.