Storm Lamp c. 1938

James McLellan made this watercolor on paper of a storm lamp, we don't know exactly when. McLellan's use of the watercolor here is pretty straightforward, but he coaxes a lot of detail out of a limited palette. You can see the metal quality of the lamp, even in two dimensions, through the ways that he captures the highlights and shadows. The tiny, repetitive marks, like the little dots on the lamp, really build up a sense of texture. If you get up close, you can almost feel the cool metal and the subtle variations in its surface. I love how the light seems to glow from within the lamp, even though it's just paint on paper. It makes you think about the real object – the way it might have been used to guide someone through the darkness. It reminds me a little of those quiet, contemplative paintings by Giorgio Morandi, where he took humble household objects and turned them into these monumental, almost spiritual forms through observation. Art is an ongoing conversation, right? McLellan is talking to Morandi, I’m talking to McLellan and Morandi, and hopefully, you’re talking to all of us too.