Pitcher 1938

Francis Law Durand made this watercolor called Pitcher, and what's so wonderful about it is how he's captured light hitting this simple, everyday object. I bet when Durand was making this, he kept stepping back, squinting, maybe tilting his head, trying to get those subtle shifts in tone just right, the way the light rolls around the curve of the pitcher, highlighting the lip and handle. I love how the paint isn’t overworked, you can almost see the individual strokes that give the pitcher its form. The glaze is painted in such a way that it almost looks like it has a drip. It reminds me of Morandi's bottles and jars, how he took these mundane objects and turned them into something poetic and meditative. It shows how artists are always in conversation with each other, finding new ways to see the world and share it with us.