Broom 1935 - 1942

Here's Peter Antonelli's 'Broom', a watercolour measuring 42.3 by 36.1 cm. I'm getting a real kick out of this piece! A humble broom made with such care. I can imagine Antonelli hunched over his desk, gently coaxing the pigments to life. I bet he thought long and hard about how to capture each bristle, layering the orange and brown, building up the straw texture. There is something deeply satisfying about the contrast between the simple subject and the concentrated attention given to it. It reminds me a bit of Morandi and his bottles, how you can find the sublime in the everyday. I see in this broom an affirmation that any subject, no matter how ordinary, can become extraordinary through the simple act of seeing, the careful act of rendering, and the transformative act of painting.