Wall Paper Border 1935 - 1942

Burton Ewing made this *Wall Paper Border* on paper with what looks like gouache or watercolor. You can see how the artist is working out an idea, testing a motif, with simple blooms in shades of red and blue. I like to imagine Ewing painting it, perhaps with a fine brush to get those clean lines. He’s probably thinking about pattern repeats, and how these shapes might look marching across a wall. There’s something so satisfying about this kind of repetition, a rhythm that’s both calming and visually engaging. I can see the influence of folk art here, that simple directness, but there is also an echo of the decorative arts of someone like William Morris. Painters are always in conversation with each other, even across time. I love how Ewing takes these ideas and makes them his own, and how it speaks to a bigger world of art and design. This piece isn’t just a sketch, it’s a little piece of a much larger creative journey.