Mantel Clock c. 1937

Francis Law Durand made this Mantel Clock, a watercolor and graphite drawing, sometime in the 20th century. What strikes me is the way Durand lets the watercolour bleed and bloom. It's controlled, but you still get a sense of the liquid medium, of the hand moving across the page. I’m really drawn to the little landscape at the bottom of the clock. The colors are soft, like a memory, and the details are kind of fuzzy. But there's a clarity too, in the way the trees are formed with simple blocks of colour. It’s like Durand wasn't trying to replicate reality, but capture a feeling. The painting of the clock face is super interesting – you can see the graphite lines underneath the watercolour, like a secret map. It reminds me of the early work of Alex Katz, that same simple approach to realism, with an underlying sweetness, but here, it’s all about the passing of time. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, a way of seeing and thinking that evolves and changes over time, and a challenge to find stillness in flux.