Sugar Bowl 1935 - 1942

John Fisk’s ‘Sugar Bowl’ is a little gem painted with watercolor. It feels like he’s chasing the light as it moves across the surface of glass. I love the delicate washes of blues and greens. He must have been trying to capture that shimmering, translucent quality. It's almost like he's trying to paint air itself, not just the object. I wonder if Fisk was thinking about the way light can transform something ordinary into something magical? I can almost feel his hand moving across the paper. The way he’s suggested the curves and contours of the bowl is so subtle, so intuitive. It's like a whisper of a drawing. It reminds me of the still life paintings of Giorgio Morandi, where the focus is less on the objects themselves and more on the relationships between them. It’s all about creating a space for contemplation. That quiet conversation between the object, the artist, and the viewer.