Statuette of a Dog c. 1938

Yolande Delasser made this drawing of a dog statuette, but we don't know exactly when. Looking at this artwork I think about how, when you are drawing from observation, you must really look—long and hard—at the subject. Here the dog is drawn in greenish hues and ochre. I imagine Delasser looked at all those details and then tried to work out how to translate a three-dimensional object into two dimensions on the page. Did she start with the dog's face? Or with the base of the statuette? How many layers of paint? When I look at the dog's curly fur I imagine Delasser considering each stroke of the brush. How do you translate texture using color and line? It must have been a challenge! All those questions, all those decisions... Painters are always in conversation with each other, even across time. Delasser's careful observation reminds me of other artists who draw from life, each finding their own way of seeing and interpreting the world.