Dough Tray c. 1938

Leonard Battee made this painting of a Dough Tray at an unknown date, using watercolor and graphite on paper. Looking at the brown hues, I imagine a kind of warm, intimate process, like kneading dough on a Sunday morning. The tray is so carefully rendered, with a meticulous attention to its details, that I can see how the artist enjoyed the act of painting it. I feel like Battee probably understood the craft of carpentry—you can see it in how he depicts the three-dimensionality of the object. You can practically trace the wood grain with your finger and feel its texture. In that sense, the piece is very tactile. The way the tray is rendered reminds me of those folk paintings where everyday objects or landscapes take on a deeper significance, becoming icons of memory, place, or tradition. I see in this work the possibility for artists to engage in conversations across time, each building upon the other’s discoveries and insights. Painting is an embodied form of expression, embracing ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations and endless possibilities of meaning-making.