Bonnet c. 1939

Marion Gaskill painted this bonnet with watercolor, and the translucence of the medium really suits the subject matter. I imagine Gaskill, peering intently at a bonnet. Maybe it was a family heirloom? She really makes you feel the fabric. The ruffles are like waves, one after the other, each subtly different, each catching the light in its own way. It's a meditation on form and shadow, but also on memory and identity. You can feel her hand moving across the paper, delicately layering washes of colour to build up the volume and texture. It reminds me of Morandi and his bottles, how he could find endless variations in the simplest of forms. Painting, for both of them, becomes a way of seeing, of slowing down and really looking at the world. And in that looking, they find something profound.