Grandfather's Clock c. 1936

Ernest Towers Jr. made this study of a Grandfather's Clock with graphite and watercolour on paper. Can you imagine him bent over his desk, the scratch of the graphite on paper marking time as surely as the clock he's rendering? There's such care here, in the details of the clock face and the grain of the wood. The muted, almost melancholy palette makes me think he might have been conjuring a memory, perhaps of a clock from his own childhood home? I love the mix of precision and looseness. The body of the clock has this beautiful, almost topographic rendering, while the face is precisely delineated. It’s like Towers is in conversation with the object, balancing accuracy with a sense of personal connection. We’re all drawing on what’s come before, in a constant creative exchange. Like this clock, art marks the passage of time and reminds us of our shared history.