Lamp c. 1938

Charles Caseau made this drawing of a lamp, we don't know when, but it's been rendered in pencil and watercolor. The beauty of this image lies in its dedication to process, to the simple act of looking and recording. Caseau’s delicate washes of grey and the precise lines create a luminous effect, capturing the sheen of the lamp. Look at the way the light glides across the surface. It makes me think about how we use observation in artmaking. Every mark carries a decision, a moment of looking and responding. I think of Agnes Martin, and her quiet, meditative paintings – also works that find profundity in the simple and repetitive. Both find a quiet power in restraint and the process of making. Art is a conversation, always evolving, and never truly finished.