Flask c. 1941

This is a little watercolor called Flask by Hal Blakeley. He or she—we don’t know—made this small image of a perfume bottle or flask. What I love most about it is the color, this shimmering, shifting, transparent blue-green, the color of sea glass. It's that kind of strange, found object. I wonder how Blakeley layered the colors to create this luminescent effect? Was it a slow build-up, or a fast, intuitive wash? I imagine them considering, what is it like to look at this flask? What colors are embedded in it? How could I bring this out? I think they were trying to show the object, but also the sensation of looking at it. It reminds me of the work of Giorgio Morandi, with his still-life paintings of bottles. The light, the color, the quiet observation. There's an intimacy in these works, like a conversation between artists across time, each inspiring the other to see the world in new ways. This piece celebrates the joy of looking.