Rider's Spur c. 1938

Here's Fred Hassebrock's watercolour painting of a spur. It's really about the way a wash of brown paint can evoke the gleam and patina of aged metal. I can imagine him delicately layering each brushstroke and watching how the tones subtly shifted from dark to light. I love that this ordinary object is given importance through close observation. You get a real sense of the time and care the artist took rendering the most modest subject matter. I think all artists are magpies, drawn to making paintings of things that other people might not think twice about. Hassebrock, like other artists, is in conversation with all the painters who tried to capture the look and feel of things. It’s a reminder that art doesn't always need to be about grand statements. Sometimes, the quietest observations can be the most powerful.