Dress c. 1937

Roberta Spicer made this watercolour and graphite drawing, called 'Dress', on paper. It's so interesting to consider what it was like for Spicer, back then. I can imagine her, pencil in hand, carefully mapping out the intricate plaid of this dress, how those colours intersect and overlap to create a pattern that's both orderly and kind of wild. There is a real love and care in her work. You can see it in the way she handled the graphite and the watercolour, giving it a soft, almost dreamy quality. The plaid is the main event, though, and it's so vivid. And the way the dress billows out - it's like she's capturing a sense of movement, even though it's just a still image. I think there's a real conversation happening between Spicer and other artists, and craftspeople, across time. She's taking something traditional, like the dress pattern, and making it her own.