Robe de drap blanc 1912

George Barbier made this fashion plate of watercolour and ink in 1912, and you can almost see him bent over his desk, deftly applying the washes. I feel a real kinship with Barbier; both of us committed to paper, in our own ways, the everyday world of beauty. Look at that flowing white dress with the pink trim, the soft watercolour of the skin tones, set against the strong graphic lines of black ink. What was he thinking as he rendered these shadows and that flock of birds in the sky? Was he also thinking of Japanese woodblock prints, like I am? I like to imagine that he’s having a conversation with all the other artists who have taken the time to render their world in a drawing. And like all conversations, we are always learning from each other, always inspired to create something new. Painting, like any embodied expression, is a conversation full of uncertainty.