Pitcher c. 1942

Mamie Jones made this ‘Pitcher’ with watercolor and graphite on paper. I love the way the image emerges in layers of soft blue washes, like a memory gradually coming into focus. You know, painting a picture is like building a thought, one little stroke at a time. I imagine Mamie must have been really absorbed in the process, gently coaxing the form of the pitcher out of the paper with her brush. Each watery layer building the shape, creating a beautiful, ghostly object. The translucency of the watercolor gives the pitcher a delicate quality, it’s as if it could disappear at any moment. And those graphite lines underneath provide a subtle structure, hinting at the careful observation that went into capturing the form. You can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page. These kinds of works always make me wonder about the quiet conversations happening between artists across time, each one building on what came before, in their own way.