Hat Rack (Shaped Like Ox Yoke) c. 1939

Charlotte Angus made this watercolour of a 'Hat Rack (Shaped Like Ox Yoke)' sometime in the mid twentieth century. Her approach here is all about capturing the everyday in a way that feels kind of dreamlike, don't you think? There’s something about the way she’s worked with the paint - see how the washes of colour bleed into each other? - that lets the subject breathe. Looking at the material aspects, you get a real sense of the grain of the wood, and the shape of those horns, like it’s right there in front of you. I love the way she’s handled the light and shadow on the ox heads. It’s not just about depicting what’s there, it’s about feeling the weight and form of the object. Notice the dark patch on the lower half of the right ox head? The way Angus has left this unfinished or incomplete feeling, makes me think about all the art that celebrates process over product. This piece reminds me of Elizabeth Murray, who also played with the boundaries between representation and abstraction, domestic and the wild. Ultimately, Angus’s hat rack invites us to see the beauty in the mundane, and to appreciate the process of artmaking as a journey of discovery.