Child's Dress & Collar c. 1936

This delicate watercolour of a child's dress and collar was made by Roberta Spicer. I love how the artist has rendered the image of the dress once in full colour, and once in simple outline. It is as if Roberta Spicer is not only showing us the dress, but also showing us how to see the dress. She wants us to understand how she has translated the object into an image. As a painter myself, I know that paintings are never truly finished. They are always a work in progress, a constant process of revision and reinvention. In this piece, it is as if the artist is bravely showing us the earlier stages of the painting, her under-drawing. She shows us how we can begin to see something even when the artwork is not ‘finished’ or complete. In doing so, Spicer shows us how to really look.