Woman's Slipper c. 1936

This 'Woman's Slipper' – what a find! It's a watercolor by Ella Josephine Sterling. I love the simple colour palette, how she used a pinky-salmon colour for the body of the shoes, and darker lines to create a criss-cross effect, like a decorative net. What this reminds me is how so much of artmaking is a process of layering, adding, subtracting, and repeating. Look at the bottom shoe, where the toe curves up – you can really see Sterling’s confident line, a thin dark accent which gives the shoe its form. The materiality here is subtle, you can see the watercolor bleeding into the paper, creating soft edges. It doesn’t shout at you. It’s all about the gentle touch, the delicate balance of light and shadow. I see a parallel with the work of Florine Stettheimer, both artists sharing an interest in depicting everyday objects with a light touch and quirky aesthetic.