Shaker Table c. 1938

Alfred H. Smith made this drawing of a Shaker Table sometime in the 20th century. Look at how he rendered it in watercolor. The colors in this piece are mostly warm browns, like a cozy wood cabin, and the paint is laid down in thin, even washes, giving it a soft, almost ethereal quality. I love the way the light seems to glow from within the table, like it's holding a secret. Notice the shadows under the table legs, barely there, adding depth without overwhelming the simplicity. The slight imperfections in the rendering, the almost imperceptible wavering of a line, bring a sense of humanness to a picture of an object. This feels connected to the work of someone like Agnes Martin. Not necessarily in terms of style, but in the shared pursuit of simplicity and purity, a kind of reductive approach that allows the viewer to find their own meaning within the quiet spaces. Like art itself, it's more about the questions it evokes than any definitive answers it provides.