Carousel Horse c. 1939

Dorothy Handy’s Carousel Horse appears to be made with watercolor, and it's all about layering and seeing how colors chat with each other. I’m really drawn to the grey body of the horse itself. There’s something so sad and stoic about that particular shade of grey. It's like the horse knows its only purpose is to go round and round and round and round... The mark-making is so delicate. See how she’s used these tiny strokes to give the horse this almost metallic sheen? It reminds me of the way Giorgio Morandi used to build up his colours, ever so gently, one layer at a time. It's amazing that Dorothy Handy achieved this illusion of three-dimensionality without a lot of shading. It feels very contemporary in that way. There's a connection here to other self-taught artists, like Bill Traylor, who found freedom in simple materials. In the end, art-making is a long, ongoing conversation, with different people having their say at different times.