Belt c. 1936

Jean Peszel made this drawing of a belt using pencil and watercolour. Look at the way she has used the washes of colour, laid over the precision of the drawn line; it’s a delicate balance! The details of the floral embroidery are picked out in reds and blues, the gold thread indicated by hatching with yellow pencil. Look closely and you can see the artist is not afraid to let the pencil lines show, embracing the immediacy of the medium. The texture of the paper becomes part of the image, contrasting with the smooth surface of the imagined belt. I'm put in mind of the work of Paul Klee, particularly the way he combines line and colour to create an intimate and magical world. Just as in Klee's work, this drawing operates in a space between representation and abstraction, inviting us to project our own desires and fantasies onto its surface.