Porch Settee (one of a pair) c. 1936

This is Edna Rex's "Porch Settee," and it appears to be made with watercolor. The colors are muted, almost sepia-toned. The marks are controlled and careful, it's all about the process of rendering the object. There’s a tenderness in the way the texture of the woven seat is built up, stroke by stroke, and how the light catches the curves of the wood. See how the artist varies the pressure, to give different depths of tone, that is such a nice detail. The whole thing feels very delicate. This reminds me of Fairfield Porter’s paintings of interiors, how he could turn the everyday, into something worthy of care and attention, with just a few brushstrokes. It seems Rex is doing something similar here: elevating the humble porch settee to something beautiful and worth considering. It makes you wonder about art's potential to change how we see the world around us.