Church Clock Hands 1938

Walter Praefke made this drawing of church clock hands in 1938. They are rendered in rusty, earthy tones against a pale ground. You can almost feel the weight of the metal, the scale of the mechanisms required to turn these hands. Imagine Praefke, carefully studying the clock hands, mapping their forms onto the page. Maybe he was thinking about time itself, the way it marches on, relentless. Or maybe he was fascinated by the beauty of these functional objects, their curves and angles, the way they interact with the clock face. The clock hands are so present, so real, and yet they point to something beyond themselves. I think, as painters, we’re all in conversation with each other across time. Each of us trying to capture something of the world, something of ourselves, in paint. It’s a beautiful, messy, and ultimately unknowable process.