Horse on Barrel Bank c. 1938

William O. Fletcher made this drawing of a Horse on Barrel Bank, and what strikes me is the sheer simplicity and directness of the approach. The colors are muted – a dark, earthy palette – and the forms are delineated with an almost childlike sincerity. There’s a real tension between the flatness of the paper and the illusion of three-dimensionality that he creates. Look closely, and you’ll notice how he uses subtle shading to suggest the rounded forms of the horse and barrel, but then flattens them out again with bold outlines. The texture is smooth, almost polished, yet you can sense the hand of the artist in every line. Take the horse’s saddle, for example. The way Fletcher renders the pattern with tiny, repetitive marks gives it a kind of tactile presence, as if you could reach out and touch it. Fletcher’s work reminds me a little of the self-taught artist, Bill Traylor, in its unpretentious simplicity and unwavering commitment to capturing the essence of everyday life. Both artists seem to embrace ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own stories and associations to the work.