Pa. German Butter Mold c. 1940

Charlotte Angus painted this Pa. German Butter Mold, sometime in the middle of the 20th century, with what seems to be watercolor on paper. I wonder how many layers of thin pigment were applied to reach this warm, subdued tonality. It’s an image of a carved wooden object, so the illusion depends on capturing light and shadow. I can imagine Angus trying to represent the dense texture of the wood, the sharp geometric cuts of the maker’s tool. Maybe Angus considered the relationship between folk art and fine art? How abstraction is already embedded in the patterns and shapes of vernacular objects. I'm thinking of the way that artists like Marsden Hartley or Elie Nadelman looked at American folk art for inspiration. It’s like one big, ongoing conversation! An artist makes something and another artist answers back, through their own work.