Riding Habit c. 1936

Marie Mitchell created this watercolor, "Riding Habit," without a date, but it speaks volumes about process, doesn't it? The dress, rendered in a deep, almost velvety blue, appears solid, yet it's built up with delicate washes. See how she lets the white of the paper peek through, giving it a luminosity, and how the thin outlines almost vibrate against the paper. This reminds me of the way I layer colors, letting the underpainting influence the final hue. The artist is teasing out something ethereal from the material. And then, over to the right, is a ghost of a dress, just lines on the page, existing in potential. I love this dance between the real and the imagined, the finished and the not-yet. It makes me think of Hilma af Klint, with her process of automatic drawing as a way of exploring the unseen. Ultimately, art is a conversation.