Iron "Bank" Bank c. 1938

Clementine Fossek made this watercolour painting of an Iron "Bank" Bank at some point in her lifetime, we don't know exactly when! The browns and greys here are really muted, almost dissolving into one another, which flattens out this image of a 3D object. I’m struck by how, although the subject is a humble, mass-produced object, she has rendered it with an almost reverential attention to detail. Look at the tiny strokes she used to create the roof tiles, each one distinct and individual. There’s a real sense of care and labor involved here, and I wonder why she chose this particular object to paint. Maybe Fossek was interested in the way that even mundane objects can hold a certain kind of beauty or historical significance. It reminds me of the work of some folk artists who elevate everyday objects to the level of art through their obsessive attention to detail and ornamentation. Art is such an amazing form of communication, where ambiguity reigns and meanings are there for the taking.