Child's Soldier Suit c. 1938

Adele Brooks made this watercolor of a child’s soldier suit sometime in the 20th century. Brooks’ delicate approach to this piece, layering color upon color to bring out the various textures of the clothing, reflects a real understanding of artmaking as a patient and receptive process. The colors and the way they’re applied are what really make this piece for me. Brooks’ thin, transparent washes, especially in the red pants, create this wonderful sense of volume and depth. You can almost feel the fabric bunching and folding around the unseen child’s legs. Look at the way she’s handled the detailing on the blue jacket, carefully outlining the shapes with a fine white line that gives the whole thing a playful, almost cartoonish feel. It reminds me a bit of the way Henri Rousseau played with scale and proportion in his paintings, creating these dreamlike images that are both familiar and strange. In the end, this is what art is all about: an ongoing conversation across time and space, a constant exchange of ideas and perspectives.