Drop-leaf Table c. 1936

Rex F. Bush made this watercolour painting, "Drop-leaf Table," and I’m imagining him carefully building up the brown washes, one on top of the other, to conjure the three-dimensional solidity of this table. The wood-grain effect is achieved with delicate brushstrokes, varying the tone and density of the pigment in the water, like a glaze. Maybe Bush was thinking about the qualities of light, how it reflects off the polished surface of the wood? And how the shape and form of the table is made out of light and shadow? The painting has a kind of quiet modesty to it. It reminds me that all artists, no matter what they make, whether paintings or drawings, furniture or design, are always thinking about the same thing. They're thinking about how to make something that exists in the world, something which has a presence and a life of its own. Each artwork is like a proposal, a proposition, or an invitation for others to see the world differently.