Moravian Hinge c. 1939

Franklin Syres painted this Moravian Hinge with watercolor on paper. You can see how the image emerged from the brushstrokes of brown wash— the colour of rust, like the iron object that he was depicting. He was born in 1855 and worked as an 'Indexer and Illustrator'. Perhaps it was an assignment or maybe it was just a form of documentation; I imagine him carefully observing the details of the metalwork: the holes and rivets, the curls, the little imperfections and wearing of time. The hinge is depicted as a symmetrical, decorative object: it’s a folk-art ram skull emblem, and it's got this really beautiful graphic quality. Syres is not just copying an image but is transcribing an image—from iron to paint, from three dimensions to two. Painters are always having a conversation with other painters, or in this case, an illustrator talking to an iron worker. In a way, the act of painting is a form of conversation. It's about seeing and responding and creating something new out of something old, with freedom and imagination.