The White Ox 1905

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan created this etching called "The White Ox" sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. Look at the web of delicate lines that form the body of the ox. I can imagine MacLaughlan hunched over the plate, carefully building up the image bit by bit, like a spider spinning a web. I wonder what he was thinking as he worked. Was he trying to capture the animal's raw power, its quiet dignity? Or was he more interested in the play of light and shadow on its form? I'm drawn to the contrast between the solid, grounded ox and the fleeting, ethereal lines that define it. It reminds me that painting, like life, is about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the permanent in the ephemeral. The image has a timeless quality, reminiscent of earlier pastoral scenes. It's a reminder that we artists are always in conversation with each other, borrowing and building on what came before. And, as ever, meaning is fleeting, shifting like the shadows under a tree.