Bandbox c. 1939

Walter Doran made this lovely rendering of a Bandbox, probably in watercolor, but when, we don't know. Look closely and you can see how the blue is layered, built up in washes. It's a process of seeing and responding. The way the artist uses color here—that particular shade of blue, offset by gold—gives the piece its charm, its somewhat naive affect. The texture looks smooth, but the painting itself is all about surface, about the physical act of applying paint. See the way the artist repeats these elongated oval shapes around the box? Each one is slightly different, slightly off. It reminds me a little of Marsden Hartley's folk art-inspired paintings, with their bold colors and simplified forms. Like Hartley, Doran seems to be finding something essential in the everyday object, elevating it through art. And isn't that what art is all about, anyway? Embracing the beauty of the imperfect and finding new ways of seeing the world around us.