Octant 1939

John Thorsen made this watercolour painting, Octant, sometime in the late 20th century. I can imagine him in his studio, carefully planning each line and shadow to recreate the three-dimensional form of the octant. There’s an element of precision to the painting, a sense of reverence for the tool's functionality and history. Look at the way he's rendered the wood grain of the octant's frame - you can almost feel the texture beneath your fingertips. The colour palette is muted, dominated by earthy browns and greens, but there are subtle variations that add depth and complexity to the composition. The thin application of watercolour allows for a sense of transparency and luminosity, which gives the painting a delicate, ethereal quality. I wonder if Thorsen saw himself as a sort of modern-day cartographer, charting not just physical landscapes but also the terrain of memory and imagination? He’s having a conversation with the Realists of the nineteenth century, all those artists committed to capturing the world around them with honesty and precision.