Sperm Oil Lamp c. 1939

Palmyra Pimentel made this, what looks like, study of a Sperm Oil Lamp with delicate strokes and a muted palette. I love these kinds of works, where you can see an artist making their way around a thing, not quite knowing what it is until it comes into being. I can imagine her, squinting slightly, gently coaxing out the lamp's form from the paper, almost whispering to it as she builds up the layers of color, a beautiful brown. See the way she uses white to catch the light, making the metal gleam? It’s almost as if she’s trying to capture not just the object itself, but also the way light dances across its surface. You can almost feel the weight of the lamp in your hand, the coolness of the metal. I imagine Pimentel with her peers, all diligently sketching away, each lamp a tiny universe of light and shadow. There's a certain generosity in her work, an openness. It reminds me that art is always a conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas across time.