Rocker c. 1940

Grace Thomas made this watercolour of a rocking chair, probably in Santa Fe, and it's less about representation and more about the pure joy of mark-making. Look how the colours bloom across the fabric of the chair. Are they roses? Maybe. Are they just an excuse to let reds, purples, and greens mingle and dance? Definitely. The paint is applied in such thin washes that the paper glows through, giving it an ethereal quality. The whole piece feels like a memory, a sketch of a feeling rather than a precise depiction. See the way the floral pattern is built up from little hatches, like stitches? It's as if Thomas is not just painting a chair, but also evoking the act of creating something beautiful with your own hands. This reminds me a little of Florine Stettheimer, with its embrace of the decorative and its unapologetic celebration of colour. It’s this kind of artistic conversation across time that keeps art so alive and surprising.