Weather Vane c. 1939

Harriette Gale made this watercolor of a weather vane, and you can tell she was really looking. It’s almost like she’s feeling her way around the object with her eyes. The color is muted, a kind of aged gold, and she’s broken down the object into its different planes. It has texture, this isn’t just a flat diagram. I love the way she’s added a second layer of darker color along each of the joins in the vane. The way this color sits on the surface, it’s so delicate. It reminds me of the way Agnes Martin layered thin washes in her paintings. I wonder whether she had to make several studies to understand how the object was constructed. You get a sense of the wind moving around it. There’s a real sense of openness here.