Toleware Tea Caddy c. 1940

Here's Mildred Ford's painted rendering of a toleware tea caddy. I can imagine Mildred, brush in hand, carefully observing and translating its form onto paper, the image slowly emerging through trial, error, and intuition. Look at that red! It’s really singing to me. I bet she mixed it herself, trying to capture that particular tone. And the shapes! Aren't they something? Those brown leaves and yellow fronds, framing the pale pearl shapes, like a decorative flourish, alluding to folk traditions while also making something new. I feel like she’s trying to capture the essence of the object, and that's what painting is really about. It’s about responding to something, translating it through your own body, and putting it back into the world. Artists are always in conversation, you know, inspiring each other across time. It is a kind of dance between artists. It embraces uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations, so what does the image tell you?