Wood Tankard 1940

This 'Wood Tankard' was made by Richard Taylor, who lived a long life, from 1855 to 1995. Taylor's mark-making is really interesting here; you can see the way the colour is built up in these tiny hatch marks, a real labour of love! It really gets me thinking about artmaking as a process. Look closely and you can really see the colour at play, especially in the way it models the form and texture of the wood, and this makes it more than just a straightforward representation. There’s this balance of transparency and opacity that’s really something! Just look at the bottom band, and how the dark hatching suggests the roundness of the form. The artist isn't trying to hide anything about the process, instead, they really want you to think about the medium and how the image is constructed. This piece makes me think of artists like Dürer with his detailed realism, but there’s also a kind of folk-art sensibility, a real love of craft and making. In the end, it’s all about embracing the ambiguity, the multiple ways we can see and experience a work of art.