Not For The Larder 1904

Archibald Thorburn made this watercolour, "Not For The Larder," and when I look at it, I try to think myself into the mind of the artist. What’s it like to be Thorburn, making something so different from what I do? Look at the snow, the way it’s painted, all those little careful dabs of colour. And that fox—he really knows his foxes! It’s not just about painting what you see but about knowing it intimately. Like he’s watched this exact fox in this exact landscape a million times, the way its fur shines and shifts in the light, those sharp little paws… There’s a stillness in this painting, a quiet that makes you think about all the things we don’t usually notice. It’s like he’s saying, "Hey, slow down, look at this." Which is what all artists do, right? We show you how to see, even if it's something as simple as a fox in the snow.