Crock 1935 - 1942

Yolande Delasser made this work, Crock, with watercolour and graphite on paper. I love the slightly off-kilter feel of this piece. Delasser wasn’t afraid to let the hand show. The way the tones bleed into one another suggests that artmaking for her was about exploration, not perfection. The palette is muted, mostly earth tones, which gives the piece a grounded, almost folk-art quality. The physical qualities of the medium are very present. The paper seems to soak up the watercolour, creating soft edges and a slightly matte surface. Look at the way the bird form is rendered, how the dark blue almost vibrates against the warm tones of the crock. It's this kind of visual tension that makes the piece so engaging. It reminds me of Alfred Maurer's Fauvist landscapes. Both artists use colour not just to describe, but to create a mood, a feeling. There's a beautiful ambiguity to Delasser's work, an embrace of the imperfect that invites us to bring our own interpretations.