Porcelain Vase c. 1936

Edith Magnette made this drawing of a porcelain vase, sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century using pencil and watercolour on paper. I can just imagine her in the studio, squinting at the light as she applies these delicate washes to the page, building up this image layer by layer. It's like a conversation between the pencil and the watercolour, a gentle back-and-forth. I can almost feel the concentration, the little adjustments as she gets the gold trim just right. It’s so interesting how she’s included these smaller sketches of the vase, as if she's turning it around and around in her mind, trying to capture every curve and detail. There's something so human about that, that act of really looking, really trying to understand something by drawing it. Artists are always in conversation with each other and with the past. It's like a big, ongoing game of telephone, where ideas get passed down and transformed. And in the end, it’s not about perfection, it’s about that process of trying, of seeing, of feeling, of translating that onto the page.