Spool Holder c. 1938

Edward Loper made this drawing of a spool holder with what looks like watercolor or gouache, and maybe some pencil for the darker bits. I love that Loper focused so intently on rendering an everyday object. The subtle shifts in tone really give the wooden surfaces a feeling of depth, as if you could reach out and touch them. It’s like, here’s this regular thing, but when you really look, you see all this incredible detail. There’s something very satisfying about the precise lines and controlled washes. Look how the light catches the edges of the spool holder on each tier, it’s like Loper is trying to figure out, or show us, exactly how things are put together. It makes me think of the clean, crisp realism of some of the precisionist painters, like Charles Sheeler, who found beauty in the lines of factories and machines. But unlike those guys, Loper brings a real warmth to his subject.