Details of Patchwork Quilt c. 1937

Gladys Phillips made this watercolour painting called Details of Patchwork Quilt. What I like about this piece is the way it isolates the different shapes and colors of a quilt to make a new kind of composition. The painting almost has the quality of a swatch book, with each rhombus full of different patterns and textures. The artist gives each colour or repeated motif its own little plinth. What is interesting is the way the artist has used her brushstrokes to emulate and create the effect of the fabric. It's as if she is thinking about the physicality of quilting; not just the arrangement of shapes, but the process of making a whole. Her painting reminds me of the work of Ree Morton who would also build up her paintings from smaller elements.