Spur c. 1940

Robert W.R. Taylor made this small watercolor painting, Spur, on paper, sometime in the 20th century. Look closely, and you'll see the details and textures of the aged leather, brass, and steel, rendered with delicacy and precision. I can imagine Taylor carefully mixing his watercolors, testing each hue, and then applying thin washes of color to build up the forms. It's intriguing how Taylor focuses on a functional object—something used to control a horse—and turns it into a subject of quiet contemplation. I wonder what Taylor was thinking about as he painted this spur? Was it a memento of a past era, a symbol of rugged individualism, or simply an object that caught his eye? Painters steal from painters – we are magpies, all of us. Taylor is in conversation with Van Gogh and his paintings of shoes, here. The intimate scale invites us to look closer. And to make our own conclusions about what he was trying to say about the world and our place within it.