Bed Post Top c. 1938

Henry Murphy made this watercolor on paper of a "Bed Post Top" sometime in his long life stretching from the mid-19th well into the 20th century. The work is mostly brown, a warm, earthy tone which suggests wood, but it also makes me think of landscapes, dirt, the history of labor, and craft. The image is of a bed post top, and it's hard not to imagine Murphy, hunched over, carefully detailing the textures and shadows. He must have been very observant, paying close attention to the carved details of the object, each tiny groove and curve. There's a quiet humility to this kind of careful rendering. It speaks to the value placed on craftsmanship, on the beauty of everyday objects. It's like he’s asking us to really see the things around us, to appreciate the work and thought that goes into them. That's what painters do.