Carousel Horse c. 1938

Ernest A. Towers Jr. made this drawing of a Carousel Horse, with what looks like watercolour, ink, and graphite on paper. It feels like the kind of image you'd find in an old sketchbook, mapping out ideas. I love seeing the process in art, that visible labor. Here, you can see the artist working out the horse's dimensions in a little sketch in the corner. The way the graphite peeks through the watercolour layers adds this ghostliness to the horse. It is like a memory of a horse. The flat paper and thin paint give it a different feel to an oil painting. With the way the horse is coloured in distinct blocks of brown and red, I'm reminded of the work of the self taught painter, Joseph Yoakum, whose landscapes often feature overlapping planes of colour. Ultimately, the drawing remains open and tentative. Art is about being in the process of seeing, and I feel that so strongly here.