Finial, from Reredos 1939

R.J. De Freitas made this watercolor on paper, Finial, from Reredos. It's full of these deliberate, decorative gestures, almost like a record of how the hand moved and what it felt like to be making it. I can really feel the artist working on this, trying to capture the light on the painted wood, like when you’re trying to catch a glimpse of something real. The colour palette is quite subdued, isn't it? The cool blue against the muted greens and tans. It makes you think about the sensation of touch, like the smoothness of the paint or the grain of the wood. I imagine De Freitas standing there, brush in hand, thinking about all the other artists who’ve tried to depict simple beauty throughout time. Each mark, a little echo of past conversations, a nod to shared inspirations. Painting always feels like this to me, like an embodied experience, where the artist embraces ambiguity and invites us to see things in multiple ways.