Child's Dress & Collar c. 1936

Roberta Spicer made this Child's Dress & Collar with watercolor, at some point in her long life. The way she handled the watercolor is so gentle and intentional. There’s a real sense of care in how she built up the color in layers, especially in the skirt. I love how the yellow ochre softly blooms across the paper. You can almost feel the smooth, cool texture of the paper itself. Look at the small stitches running down the vertical seams of the dress, you can see the individual marks, each one a tiny act of devotion. It's like she's trying to bring the dress to life on the page. This reminds me of other self-taught artists, like Bill Traylor, who used simple materials to create deeply personal and evocative images. And like them, Spicer reminds us that art is about so much more than technical skill; it’s about seeing, feeling, and connecting with the world around us.