Infant's Dress and Shirt c. 1936

Ella Josephine Sterling sketched this infant’s dress and shirt, on what looks like paper, with pencil and watercolour, sometime during her lifetime. It’s like a technical drawing, but with a looseness, a tenderness, that blueprints lack. Look at the shadows, the way she's hinted at form with the lightest of blue washes. It’s as if the garments are barely there, like a memory of a child's fleeting presence. Notice the careful detail on the lace, the way she’s measured and noted the dimensions. It’s this combination of precision and ethereality that gets me. I love the way the different elements are scattered across the page, like pieces of a puzzle waiting to be assembled. It's not just a depiction of clothing; it's a meditation on the process of making, on the love and care that goes into creating something for a child. Think of someone like Agnes Martin, whose work also explores the beauty of simple forms, using a similar palette but a totally different medium. And just like Martin, Sterling invites us to slow down, to contemplate the quiet beauty of the everyday.