Economy: Detail of Cloth and Bonnet 1938

J. Howard Iams created this watercolour study of a bonnet with fabric swatches in 1938. What I love about this image is the way in which the artist is trying to get to grips with the many qualities of textile; the bonnet, like a 3-D puzzle in fabric, is rendered in careful detail, and you can see how the artist has worked to create a believable impression of its materiality. It’s as though Iams is asking himself: how can I create a good likeness of cloth with this medium? The artist wants to capture how light falls on the folds of fabric, how the bonnet might feel to touch, the patterns and textures, and how different sections come together. The palette is limited, but there's a lot of variation within the blues and reds. Looking at this, I start to think about the still life paintings of Morandi, for example, who returned to the same objects again and again, trying to capture their essence in paint. It feels like there's a conversation happening, with artists exchanging ideas, each trying to find new ways to represent the world around them through the medium of paint.