Pitcher c. 1937

Ella Josephine Sterling drew this pitcher in pen and watercolor, carefully choosing a bright blue and gold palette. I can just imagine Ella hunched over her desk, carefully rendering each detail – the scalloped edge, the delicate floral designs, the way the light hits the silver handle. I love the precision here, the way each line seems to have been considered. You can see her wrestling with the form, trying to capture its essence on paper. But she wasn't just copying what she saw; she was interpreting it, giving it her own spin. The small sketch at the bottom-left of the drawing makes me think that she might have been working on the composition and the details of the work. You can really feel the push and pull between observation and imagination, between the thing itself and the idea of it. Painting is a conversation, right? Ella is in conversation with the pitcher, with herself, and with all the other artists who have tried to capture the world around them.