Hand Made & Painted Wooden Cross - Headstone c. 1937

Majel G. Claflin made this watercolour of a hand-made headstone sometime before 1941. Look at the washes of colour, pale greys and blues. You can almost feel the grain of the wood, even though it’s just paint on paper. I love how the paint is thinly applied, letting the light through, but still manages to convey a sense of weight and solidity. Notice the way the artist has rendered the wood grain on the base of the cross – vertical lines that suggest both the texture of the wood and the passage of time. There’s a real tenderness in the way Claflin has depicted this object, a respect for the craft and the person it commemorates. It reminds me a little of some of Marsden Hartley’s paintings of New Mexico, that same sense of quiet contemplation and connection to the land. It’s a reminder that art isn’t always about grand gestures, sometimes it’s about paying attention to the small, everyday things and finding beauty in the unexpected.