Churn c. 1939

Aaron Fastovsky, who lived from 1855 to 1995, made this drawing called 'Churn', in a neutral palette of browns and beiges. It looks like it was made with pencil and watercolour. I can only imagine Fastovsky carefully rendering this humble object, its smoothness, the gradations of light on its surface. What was he thinking? Is it about the churn itself, or about something else? What's it like to sit and draw something like this? I bet he got into the nitty-gritty of the object, feeling the texture, seeing all the little details up close. It reminds me of the work of other artists who find the sublime in the everyday, like Giorgio Morandi, who spent his life painting bottles. They seem to be asking us: can beauty be found in the ordinary? I believe that artists are always in conversation with each other, across time, inspiring each other's creativity. Ultimately, art embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations, which I find exciting!