Christmas Card with an Angel c. 1950s

Elsie Driggs made this Christmas card with an angel out of watercolor and graphite. Isn't it interesting how the linear and the soft play together here? The way she lets the graphite lines sit on top of those muted washes of colour is really special. The texture in the piece is so subtle, it’s like she’s breathing colour onto the paper. Look at the cube-like shapes and how she’s used a zig-zag pattern within them to give them definition. It's almost as if the colours are vibrating within their forms. The colour palette, it’s like a muted, slightly melancholic sunset. I love how the thin washes create depth and a sense of ethereal space. I think of Hilma af Klint looking at this; both artists are interested in the unseen. And like Klint, Driggs’ work invites us to embrace the unknown. The beauty of art is that it doesn’t need to give us answers. It just needs to spark a question, a feeling, a connection.