Child's Dress c. 1938

This watercolour of a child’s dress was painted by Eleanor Gausser. Just look at the way the lines of the plaid meet and cross, they almost seem to hum with a quiet energy. I wonder what Gausser was thinking when she made it. I feel like she was sitting quietly, meticulously building up the pattern, line by line. How tender, this careful attention to detail. Each little square of the plaid is rendered with such love. You can feel the softness of the fabric, the gentle curve of the sleeves. This reminds me of the work of Agnes Martin, in the way it finds endless variation within a strict, self-imposed grid. Artists are always speaking to one another across time and space, inspiring each other to see the world in new ways. Painting, like life, is an ongoing conversation, full of questions, surprises, and endless possibilities.